Fire line: Crew built backfires to protect Windsor, then waited for the Kincade Fire.
On Sunday night, 20 minutes after Napa Winery Inn regained power lost to tree falls during the weekend windstorm, the phone rang. It was a Cal Fire battalion chief. He had stayed at the small hotel during the 2017 Wine Country fires. Now, two years later, he was back fighting the Kincade Fire — and looking for hot showers and clean beds for his crew.
“He reached out to us directly,” said Napa Winery Inn general manager Justin Sterling. The chief, said Sterling, had “been calling all day.”
Since Sunday, the 59room inn along Highway 29 in Napa has had about 30 to 40 Cal Fire rooms booked per night, with firefighters cycling in and out to sleep on shifts. Another 12 rooms are housing evacuees from Windsor, who came seeking a roof over their heads, with dogs and packed cars in tow.
All across Wine Country, hotels have pivoted from harvest season tourism to supporting first responders and local residents whose lives have been upended by the blaze.
In Calistoga, where an evacuation warning has been in place just south of the Kincade Fire, the UpValley Inn and Hot Springs has had rooms filled by Pacific Gas and Electric Co. workers, Ventura County Fire Department personnel, other first responders and local news crews.
They don’t need many amenities, said UpValley general manager Peter Patel of his firefighter guests. “Mostly they need the rest. They want to clean up, rest and go back to work.”
Calistoga Motor Lodge and Spa has had firefighters in 11 rooms, offered at a discounted rate. While the hotel has been open throughout the fire, front desk supervisor Jess Preusser said tourists have been canceling reservations, leaving them with open rooms to welcome first responders. Nearby Clif Family Winery, from the coowners of Clif Bar, dropped off snacks, and the hotel has worked to clean up the pool area after intense winds so the crews can take advantage when they get off shift.
“They were really excited to use the hot tub last night, so they can rest their muscles,” Preusser said.
At Napa Winery Inn, rooms for firefighters are being sold at about half the average daily rate, paid for by Cal Fire out of the stateissued per diem, according to Sterling.
Being a small, locally owned property, he said, gives the hotel the flexibility to cut rates and make other accommodations for a few of the approximately 5,000 firefighters and other responders who have been called in for the Kincade Fire, which has burned more than 76,000 acres and 206 structures since igniting Oct. 23. The hotel has staff coming in early to prepare breakfast by 5 a.m. for firefighters who need to get back out on the line.
“Our ownership is private. He lives in St. Helena, and when these types of thing happen, he’s always like, ‘Don’t let a first responder sleep in the grass,’ ” Sterling said.
The hotel has also bent its rules for evacuees, welcoming dogs that would normally far exceed the property’s 35pound weight limit and offering discounts when needed.
“We’re not letting someone walk out the door without a house because it’s $20 more than they can afford,” Sterling said.
The Westin Verasa Napa in downtown Napa is housing about 25 evacuee families from Healdsburg, Geyersville and Calistoga. The crisis has evoked the 2017 Wine Country fires, when the hotel housed some families who had lost their homes for up to 10 months, general manager Don Shindle said.
“We did a Halloween pumpkin carving party for the kids that year,” Shindle said. “We had regular receptions for the evacuee families, so they could all get together and special places where they could meet with insurance.”
For Sterling, the Kincade Fire has been a reminder of the importance of the hospitality industry and the crucial role it can play in times of crisis.
“I can’t go put out a fire. Our housekeeping team can’t volunteer to dig trenches and cut down trees,” he said. “But what we can do is help those people who can. We can take care of them.”