SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — Outside one of the first shops to reopen for business on an empty central square in California wine country, clerk Rhiannon Lorenzini swept the sidewalks as the sky cleared of ash more than a week after the state's deadliest group of wildfires ignited.

In a wine region that normally draws more annual visitors than Disney World, Lorenzini waved to some of the few passers-by: firefighters in firetrucks rolling through Sonoma's normally thronged 19th-century plaza. The blazes have left many business owners and employees without work or pay for nine days.

"I'm really grateful...