Shay Cook, of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue team and her search dog, Zinka inspect a burned out pickup while searching the Coffey Park area Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017, in Santa Rosa, Calif. A massive wildfire swept through the area last week destroying thousands of housing and business and taking the lives of more than two dozen people.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)
Shay Cook, of the Alameda County Sheriff's Office Search and Rescue team and her search dog, Zinka inspect a burned out pickup while searching the Coffey Park area Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2017, in Santa Rosa, Calif. A massive wildfire swept through the area last week destroying thousands of housing and business and taking the lives of more than two dozen people.(AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli) Credit: ap photograph

Petaluma, Calif. — Some have lost loved ones. Many have survived near-death experiences. Others have lost their homes and a lifetime of possessions.

A week after fleeing raging wildfires, tens of thousands of emotionally ravaged Californians have drifted back home to find their lives and their communities dramatically altered.

At a Red Cross shelter in Petaluma on Tuesday, 69-year-old Sue Wortman recalled the words that raced through her mind when she fled the flames near her home in Sonoma.

“We’re all going up in smoke,” she thought at the time. Since then, she’s been walking around in a daze.

Firefighters gained more control Tuesday of the massive wine country wildfires, even as other blazes erupted in mountains near Los Angeles and Santa Cruz.

Meanwhile, officials and trauma experts worried about the emotional toll taken by the grueling week of blazes.

Wortman has been living in her RV outside the Petaluma shelter, while hundreds of other evacuees sought refuge in tents and trailers and on cots inside the fairground facility. She has sought comfort among friends and with her dogs but knows that feeling won’t last.

“I think it’s really going to hit when we go home and see the destruction,” she said.

Highlighting the concerns of mental health professionals, the California Psychological Association has emailed an urgent request calling for volunteers to help wildfire evacuees cope with the trauma they have faced and its aftermath.

The fires that swept through parts of seven counties were the deadliest and most destructive series of blazes in in California history. At least 41 people were killed and 6,000 homes destroyed.