SONOMA COUNTY — The 2 a.m. wakeup call Monday for sleeping firefighters at Rancho Adobe’s Penngrove station came not from a fire bell but from screeching tires, crumpling metal and debris hitting their station.

Firefighters rushed outside and found a pickup driver had plowed through the fire house fence and into two vehicles owned by firefighters working together on the Nuns fire.

“I thought this guy was going to come through my bedroom,” said Rancho Adobe Battalion Chief Mike Weihman.

There was no sign of the driver outside but the abandoned truck bed was “literally full to bursting with marijuana along with a ladder and bolt cutters,” which firefighters believe meant the crop was likely stolen, Weihman said.

The driver had been trying to elude CHP officers in a short pursuit after officers noticed the driver weaving, Weihman said.

The suspect appeared to have missed the sweeping curve heading into Penngrove and landed in the fire district’s parking lot.

The CHP was investigating.


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