Wine country in flames again — ‘Demoralizing’
68,000 ordered to evacuate Sonoma County — including entire city of Calistoga
It’s becoming something of a tragic annual tradition for California’s wine country: Fast-moving flames terrorizing the region, turning the sky into a smoky orange haze, destroying dozens of homes and wineries in its wrath and forcing tens of thousands of residents to frantically flee from their homes.
In 2017, it was the Atlas, Nuns and Tubb fires. Last year it was the Kincaid Fire. And just as the LNU Complex Fire — the fourthlargest wildfire in state history — was nearing full containment in Northern California, one of the last untouched sections of wine country erupted in flames Sunday when the Glass, Shady and Boysen blazes merged to create the Glass Fire.
Many of the same areas threatened and burned by the devastating Tubbs and Nuns blazes three years ago in Santa Rosa were scorched again when the Glass Fire exploded in size late Sunday and early Monday morning, placing almost 70,000 residents under evacuation orders or warnings by late Monday afternoon.
Sonoma County Sheriff Mark Essick said Monday afternoon that more than 68,000 people had been ordered to evacuate in his county; the entire city of Calistoga was under an evacuation order Monday evening,
along with parts of St Helena and other areas in Napa County.
“For some people, this is the third time since 2017 this has happened,” said Cyndi Foreman, Sonoma County Fire District fire marshal and division chief. “It feels so demoralizing to have to watch your community go through this time of angst and agony year after year.”
Erratic offshore winds Sunday pushed a layer of hot, dry air into the region, fueling the fire as it swelled to 36,236 acres with zero containment by 5 p.m. Monday. No injuries or deaths have been reported, and officials have not tallied the number of homes and structures lost to the fire so far, though more than 8,500 structures remain under threat, according to Cal Fire.
The cause of the Glass Fire remains under investigation. PG&E, whose infrastructure has been found responsible for sparking several of California’s most destructive wildfires, shut off power to about 37,000 customers in Napa and Sonoma counties at the request of firefighters.
According to eyewitnesses, at least 10 homes along Mountain Hawk Drive in Santa Rosa’s Skyhawk Community on the west side of the fire have been destroyed, and about 20 homes on Crystal Ridge Road in St. Helena on the east side of the fire have been flattened.
In addition, a handful of Napa County wineries and resorts have been damaged or destroyed, including the family- owned winery Chateau Boswell and the luxury Napa resort Meadowood, a gathering place for nearly 60 years. Meadowood guests and staff had been evacuated Sunday, so they were out of harm’s way when flames reached the 250 - acre proper t y around 3 a.m. Monday, according to Brett Anderson, a representative for Pacific Union, the resort’s parent company.
For many Santa Rosa residents who f led their homes in the early morning hours Monday, the experience was frighteningly familiar.
Jack and Karen Madigan, in their 70s, were awakened after midnight by an emergency alert telling them to flee. In their second-floor apartment, Jack collected his diabetic medications and they fled, leaving their packed bags inside because they didn’t want to waste time going up and down the stairs for them.
“You go through one or two and you think that’s the end of it and it’s not,” he said. “They seem to be getting worse each time.”
A lthough their home had been spared from the Tubbs Fire in 2017, they — like many others who remain in the region — are still rattled.
“We could feel the heat from the fire. We could see it. I was especially frightened, shaking,” said Karen, 75, a retired librarian. “It’s pretty stressful, and we’re not sure we can take it another year. We’re talking about moving away.”
Still, like all blazes, the Glass Fire has its share of people who refuse to leave despite the imminent danger. Sgt. Juan Valencia of the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office said deputies rescued multiple people early Monday morning who disregarded evacuations and “may have been burned in some areas.”
Kevin Mastel, 50, was determined to stay in his home along Highway 12 in Santa Rosa with his ailing aunt who is on oxygen. With the power out, Mastel was using a generator Monday afternoon to provide the energy he needed.
“I talked to a lot of people last night, and they said they’re not going to leave until it’s right there,” he said, pointing down the block. He’s been evacuated twice — during the Tubbs and Kincade fires — and figured his luck will endure.
And while winds were beginning to subside Monday afternoon, a red flag warning was ex tended across the region through Friday, signaling that hot, dry conditions could continue to make the job of firefighters more difficult.
“We caution folks that while it may not be being pushed into town at this point, we’ll get back into a scenario like we had with the Walbridge Fire, where we have the normal winds and an opportunity for wind fuel and slope alignment to create more significant fire runs,” said Cal Fire Division Chief Ben Nicholls.
As California heads into the peak of a historic wildfire season, more than 8,000 blazes already have burned 3.7 million acres across the state, killing 29 people and destroying more than 7,000 structures. The Glass Fire is currently one of 27 major fires burning across the Golden State.
More than 1,000 firefighters had been called in by Monday morning to tend to the Glass Fire as fire crews across the state remain stretched thin. In addition to the fires in Napa and Sonoma County, the Zogg Fire erupted overnight in Shasta County to 15,000 acres with zero containment and prompted more evacuations just west of Redding, according to Cal Fire. Three people have been found dead. And in Butte County, winds forced authorities to order new evacuations for the North Complex Fire, which tore through the region Sept. 8 and has since killed 15 people. The evacuation orders include areas devastated by 2018’s Camp Fire — the deadliest wildfire in California’s history.
“With a fire like this, I can’t stress enough that there is never enough resources to do what you need to do what you need,” Santa Rosa Fire Chief Tony Gossner said. “As much as we scraped to get as many resources at many levels, you only have so many, so you use them to the best of your ability.”
Cal Fire records show that the Glass Fire roared through one of the last territories in that part of Sonoma County that had avoided fires for more than a century — making it rich in vegetation that helped fuel its rapid growth.
“While it did burn very rapidly because it had not burned in a long long time … it did also make it into the Nuns and the Tubbs scars, and it did burn just as well there because that has been filled in with light flashy fuels like grass and some new brush,” Gossner said.