Napa County fire with ‘dangerous rate of spread’ forces residents to evacuate
SAN FRANCISCO — A fast-moving fire in Napa County on Sunday forced evacuations north of the town of St. Helena as large swaths of Northern California faced dangerous fire weather.
The Glass fire had burned 1,200 acres about four miles northwest of downtown St. Helena, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, and was burning “with a dangerous rate of spread.”
Crews were dispatched to the vegetation fire at 3:50 a.m., and it quickly grew to 20 acres, said Tyree Zander, public information officer with Cal Fire’s Napa Lake Sonoma Unit.
“And then it went from 20 acres to about 50 acres within an hour, hour and a half,” he said. “And then from 50 acres to 800 acres within a four-hour period.”
Crews reported no containment as of Sunday afternoon as the fire continued to grow rapidly, burning about 400 more acres.
The fire was burning to the north and northeast through dry brush, running uphill as it was pushed by winds, Zander said.
“It’s rugged, steep terrain and limited access, and a lot of it is one-way-in, one-way-out type of roads,” Zander said, posing difficulties to both getting fire crews into the area and getting evacuees out.
The Napa County Sheriff’s Office ordered mandatory evacuations along a stretch of the storied Silverado Trail, known for its wineries. Evacuations were ordered between Pickett Road and Deer Park Road, and along all of Crystal Springs and North Fork Crystal Springs roads, according to the Sheriff’s Office.
Evacuation orders also were issued for College Avenue from Howell Mountain Road to White Cottage Road, all of Freisen Drive and Lommel Road and all roads west of College Avenue and Freisen Drive. Residents of neighboring areas were urged to sign up for Nixle alerts and to be prepared to evacuate if necessary.
Adventist Health St. Helena hospital said it was suspending operations and evacuating its patients due to the fire. “We’re in close communication with fire officials and began transferring some patients early this morning as a precaution,” Dr. Steven Herber, the hospital’s president, said in a statement.
An evacuation center was opened at Crosswalk Community Church in Napa.
Emergency officials were being particularly cautious when deciding what areas to evacuate because of the hot, dry and windy weather forecast for later Sunday, which raised fears of even more rapid fire growth and unpredictable behavior.
“We are preparing in advance for the winds,” Zander said. “So we’re going to be more precautious when it comes to evacuations and try to get those out ahead of time, to keep things rolling earlier than later.”
Much of Northern California is under a red-flag warning, which means the National Weather Service is highly confident that dangerous fire weather conditions will occur. The advisory is in place until 9 p.m. PDT Monday. Meteorologists warned about strong winds coming from the north and northeast, with gusts of up to 50 mph at the highest elevations, and critically low humidity.
“We’re expecting another round of gusty winds overnight tonight into tomorrow morning, mainly at higher elevations, so above 1,000 feet or so,” Anna Schneider, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Monterey, said Sunday. “But we are also expecting some gusts below that of 20 to 30 mph.”
The conditions are the result of an area of high pressure that is sitting off the coast and expected to shift into the Pacific Northwest on Monday, creating an offshore flow that is bringing warmer and drier air over the land, Schneider said.
The fire weather warnings were issued for areas including the North Bay and East Bay Hills, as well as the Bay Area’s interior valleys, the Sacramento Valley, the northern Sierra, and mountainous areas of the North Coast.
The Bay Area also is under a heat advisory until 7 p.m. Monday, as Diablo winds associated with the high-pressure system strengthening over the region are expected to bring yet another severe heat wave, the weather service said. The weather system is expected to cut off the typical afternoon cooling sea breeze and marine layer as hotter air comes in from the north and east.
“We’re still expecting hot and dry conditions today and tomorrow with that high pressure over the area, and poor relative humidity, which is not helpful for firefighting conditions,” Schneider said.
San Francisco and Oakland could see temperatures in the upper 80s to around 90 on Sunday, and temperatures could increase Monday, potentially reaching into the mid-90s. Areas farther inland could hit the mid90s or low 100s on Sunday and Monday, the weather service said.
California has seen more than 3.7 million acres burn so far this year — a record in the state’s modern history, causing the deaths of at least 26 people and destroying more than 7,000 structures.
Five of the six largest wildfires in California’s modern record were fires ignited this year, and they’re still burning, according to Cal Fire.
The largest fire, the August Complex fire burning north of the Bay Area in and around Tehama County, has burned more than 870,000 acres and is 43% contained. One firefighter battling the August Complex fire has died.
Though the fire has been burning since mid-August, new evacuation orders were issued Sunday for parts of Mendocino and Trinity counties, and new warnings were issued for part of Humboldt County.
The North Complex fire, which is north of Sacramento and has resulted in 15 deaths in Butte County, is 78% contained. The North Complex fire has burned more than 300,000 acres.
The Creek fire in Fresno and Madera counties, which burned through the Sierra National Forest and forced the air evacuation of hundreds of campers cut off by flames, is 39% contained after burning more than 300,000 acres.
And in the Bay Area, the LNU Lightning Complex and SCU Lightning Complex fires, are both 98% contained.