The fires that have ravaged Northern California have killed at least 42 people and forced tens of thousands to abandon their homes — often on just a moment’s notice.For people like Kathy Gregory, there is no going back to what she left behind at the house she lived in for 38 years, in the Santa Rosa foothills. She and her husband relied on insurance to pay for their week-long stay at Sonoma County’s Oxford Suites — a hotel that’s become part shelter, part grief society for hundreds of evacuees.VICE News asked Gregory to describe what she brought with her in the frantic minutes before she and her husband fled their house. “My God, I could have taken anything, and I took some material to make two pairs of socks,” she said of the knitting needles and yarn she packed. “And why didn’t I get those family photos?”