VALLEJO FIREFIGHTERS HELP MAKE PROGRESS
Slowly but surely, the effort to put out the Glass Fire — with help from the Vallejo Fire Department — continued Wednesday night and into Thursday.
As of Thursday at 3 p.m., the fire — which began Sunday and has burned 56,781 acres in Napa and Sonoma counties — was 5 percent contained. There have been 248 structures destroyed and another 144 damaged. The air quality index number in Napa was a very unhealthy 271, while in Vallejo the number reached 136 (unhealthy for sensitive groups) at 3 p.m. on Wednesday. American Canyon’s number was 152 (unhealthy).
The fire prompted the entire city of Calistoga to evacuate. There were also orders for evacuation in all areas of Napa County north of Calistoga City limits between Highway 128, Sonoma County line and Highway 2, all addresses on both sides of Highway 29 between Calistoga City
limits and Lake County line, as well as all addresses on Old Lawley Toll Road.
Five Vallejo firefighters left on Monday to help with the Glass fire. There are also two crews on site from Fairfield (four firefighters) and one crew from Benicia (four firefighters) as well as one crew from American Canyon (four firefighters). Vallejo has one additional fire captain currently assisting with the management team on the North Complex blaze.
“We have made a lot of progress on our side of the fire, which is the west side/ Napa County side of the Glass Fire,” Vallejo firefighter and spokesperson Kevin Brown said. “However, per (Thursday) morning’s briefing, due to high heat and increases in wind speeds, they predict fire activity to pick back up starting at 1 p.m. (Wednesday). This area enters another red flag warning at 1 p.m. ( Wednesday) and lasts until 7 p.m. on Friday.”
On Thursday morning firefighters were sent to a nearby fire
located on Oakville Grade Road ( Yountville).
“That other fire is only estimated at 10-15 acres, but new fire starts always take priority because they want to catch it before it gets too large,” Brown said. “So,
resources from our fire get immediately diverted. Vallejo’s crew didn’t get sent to that fire, but we now have fewer resources working the fire in our area. We’re working near Angwin.”
T he f lames reached Highway 29 northeast of the city for the first time since the fire erupted early Sunday morning. Some the country’s most famous wineries are located along the valley f loor corridor between Napa and St. Helena — directly under threat from the inferno.
Cal Fire Chief Mark Brunton said the extreme fire conditions were expected to set in at 1 p.m.
Thursday and last approximately 36 hours.
“The spread of the fire is almost imminent as we speak,” he said during a virtual press briefing.
The winds could potentially push the flames down the Highway 29 corridor of Napa Valley — where a large share of the county’s wineries are — as well as into the communities of Angwin on the east side of the fire, Kenwood and Glen Ellen to the south and Calistoga.
“We’re doing everything we can and allocating our resources as best as we
can to try to mitigate the threat, but it is something we’re extremely concerned about,” Brunton said.
Early Thursday morning, weather forecasters expanded their weather warning to include the East Bay hills and Santa Cruz mountains, where two large fires were sparked by lightning last month, then fueled by similar hot and dry conditions.