Oh shit......a truly magical and unique place full of dedicated, knowledgeable and well meaning people.....how sad for all concerned. Echo your thoughts re NapaAddick. Let’s hope we hear from him soon!
Oh shit......a truly magical and unique place full of dedicated, knowledgeable and well meaning people.....how sad for all concerned. Echo your thoughts re NapaAddick. Let’s hope we hear from him soon!
I too hope NapaAddick is safe, and I'm sure he appreciates your sincere support and encouragement for his friends, family and neighbors.
Hope @NapaAddick does not mind, but found an update he posted elsewhere on the web yesterday. Glade you are ok:
We are okay. No power for 18 hours. We were near the evac zone early this morning but did not have to leave.
The biggest part of the Santa Rosa fire came near us but angled away and hit Fountain Grove. Lots of places I know here in Santa Rosa have been destroyed, including my favorite restaurant, "Willi's Wine Bar." No electricity and nothing is open, including gas stations. Air quality is really poor.
Confirmed 7 dead but they expect it to rise, in Sonoma. Just got word that downtown Glen Elen was spared and the Oakmont 55+ Community as well.
Press conference moments ago say 30,000 acres and 0% contained for the Santa Rosa Fire. The Nuns Canyon fire in Kenwood is 7,000 acres may have taken Ch St Jean. That one probably can't reach us and it is 6 miles away. Mostly firefighters are still just evacuating rather than fighting the fire here.
Where I make my wine is still standing but no real word on the condition of the wines and whether they were affected by the smoke. We really won't know that for many days or weeks is my guess.
My mum texted me late last night to ask if we'd had any wildfires or smoke. I was a bit confused given we'd had rain most of last week and were due for more this week. I didn't really understand until I opened up the LA Times website. I completely missed this, I didn't realize how bad it is. We had our share of fires and smoke up here, but fortunately most of them were far away from us and largely from civilization.
Growing up in LA and having lived in SD, I'm used to fires in that area. I don't remember anything like this in northern California (note, SDAddick's memory is not a good record of time). Went to uni up there and it is an incredibly beautiful area. I hope they get some rain soon. It's October FFS (to be fair September is usually the hottest month up there). Going on what the PNW had this summer I fear that the only thing that will really contain these fires is rain.
Hope @NapaAddick does not mind, but found an update he posted elsewhere on the web yesterday. Glade you are ok:
We are okay. No power for 18 hours. We were near the evac zone early this morning but did not have to leave.
The biggest part of the Santa Rosa fire came near us but angled away and hit Fountain Grove. Lots of places I know here in Santa Rosa have been destroyed, including my favorite restaurant, "Willi's Wine Bar." No electricity and nothing is open, including gas stations. Air quality is really poor.
Confirmed 7 dead but they expect it to rise, in Sonoma. Just got word that downtown Glen Elen was spared and the Oakmont 55+ Community as well.
Press conference moments ago say 30,000 acres and 0% contained for the Santa Rosa Fire. The Nuns Canyon fire in Kenwood is 7,000 acres may have taken Ch St Jean. That one probably can't reach us and it is 6 miles away. Mostly firefighters are still just evacuating rather than fighting the fire here.
Where I make my wine is still standing but no real word on the condition of the wines and whether they were affected by the smoke. We really won't know that for many days or weeks is my guess.
---
Thanks for digging that out Danny.....put mine and a few others minds at rest that’s for sure.
Hello. Glad to be back here. Even during the fires I was checking how CAFC was doing.
Thanks for the thoughts, everyone.
It's been a crazy 2 weeks. Harvest was already underway when the fires started. We had to evacuate twice from our home in Santa Rosa, Sonoma. The first night, the Tubbs Fire came within 1 kilometer of our house. It destroyed 2600 homes in the adjoining neighborhood and 900 homes in the one next to that. We know people who lost their homes, including one friend who had just purchased it and moved in 3 days before.
We evacuated due to the Oakmont Fire three days later, again. That was the fastest and scariest thing I've ever been through, including all the quakes I have lived through. We had no notice at 5am and literally ran to the car. We were away from home until 4 days ago. The house made it.
We had to evac my mom from the Oakmont Retirement Community in Sonoma the day before. The fire got within 1/2 kilometer of her place but it survived. She moved back 5 days ago.
The Tubbs Fire nearly burned down the winery I make my Cabernet at (on Tubbs Lane, in Calistoga.) and I had fruit hanging on Atlas Peak (The Atlas Peak Fire was the one that hit Napa.)
The last 5 days have been getting back some sense of normality and finishing harvest.
Despite being directly threatened by all 4 major fires (Tubbs, Nuns, Atlas, Oakmont) I feel very lucky. The total damage thus far in wine country is... 8400 homes and businesses burned down, 90,000 hectares burned, 44 dead and 67 still missing. Plus, all the cancelled trips to wine country have hotel and restaurant business off 66%. That really hurts people who live off tips. I feel for them more than winery owners.
But we will recover. It will just take time. This is one of these things everyone is asking each other "where were you when..."
Hello. Glad to be back here. Even during the fires I was checking how CAFC was doing.
Thanks for the thoughts, everyone.
It's been a crazy 2 weeks. Harvest was already underway when the fires started. We had to evacuate twice from our home in Santa Rosa, Sonoma. The first night, the Tubbs Fire came within 1 kilometer of our house. It destroyed 2600 homes in the adjoining neighborhood and 900 homes in the one next to that. We know people who lost their homes, including one friend who had just purchased it and moved in 3 days before.
We evacuated due to the Oakmont Fire three days later, again. That was the fastest and scariest thing I've ever been through, including all the quakes I have lived through. We had no notice at 5am and literally ran to the car. We were away from home until 4 days ago. The house made it.
We had to evac my mom from the Oakmont Retirement Community in Sonoma the day before. The fire got within 1/2 kilometer of her place but it survived. She moved back 5 days ago.
The Tubbs Fire nearly burned down the winery I make my Cabernet at (on Tubbs Lane, in Calistoga.) and I had fruit hanging on Atlas Peak (The Atlas Peak Fire was the one that hit Napa.)
The last 5 days have been getting back some sense of normality and finishing harvest.
Despite being directly threatened by all 4 major fires (Tubbs, Nuns, Atlas, Oakmont) I feel very lucky. The total damage thus far in wine country is... 8400 homes and businesses burned down, 90,000 hectares burned, 44 dead and 67 still missing. Plus, all the cancelled trips to wine country have hotel and restaurant business off 66%. That really hurts people who live off tips. I feel for them more than winery owners.
But we will recover. It will just take time. This is one of these things everyone is asking each other "where were you when..."
I am delighted (as we all are of course) that you and yours plus your home and crops were untouched, seems like you’re one of the very lucky ones.....we were all tentatively waiting for your first post immediately after the first fires broke a few weeks back and were relieved then to hear you were ok. And now, thanks to your latest post, we can fill in some of the blanks. What a dramatic time for you all up in beautiful Napa!
None of us here in London can ever I think comprehend the effect of a 'moving fire'.
If you think about 8,500 homes in our local populated suburban area, then think how spread it that would have to be in a rural territory to reach that figure, it gives a sense of just how breathtakingly massive that must.
Thanks for the update and huge relief you and your family are ok.
Hello. Glad to be back here. Even during the fires I was checking how CAFC was doing.
Thanks for the thoughts, everyone.
It's been a crazy 2 weeks. Harvest was already underway when the fires started. We had to evacuate twice from our home in Santa Rosa, Sonoma. The first night, the Tubbs Fire came within 1 kilometer of our house. It destroyed 2600 homes in the adjoining neighborhood and 900 homes in the one next to that. We know people who lost their homes, including one friend who had just purchased it and moved in 3 days before.
We evacuated due to the Oakmont Fire three days later, again. That was the fastest and scariest thing I've ever been through, including all the quakes I have lived through. We had no notice at 5am and literally ran to the car. We were away from home until 4 days ago. The house made it.
We had to evac my mom from the Oakmont Retirement Community in Sonoma the day before. The fire got within 1/2 kilometer of her place but it survived. She moved back 5 days ago.
The Tubbs Fire nearly burned down the winery I make my Cabernet at (on Tubbs Lane, in Calistoga.) and I had fruit hanging on Atlas Peak (The Atlas Peak Fire was the one that hit Napa.)
The last 5 days have been getting back some sense of normality and finishing harvest.
Despite being directly threatened by all 4 major fires (Tubbs, Nuns, Atlas, Oakmont) I feel very lucky. The total damage thus far in wine country is... 8400 homes and businesses burned down, 90,000 hectares burned, 44 dead and 67 still missing. Plus, all the cancelled trips to wine country have hotel and restaurant business off 66%. That really hurts people who live off tips. I feel for them more than winery owners.
But we will recover. It will just take time. This is one of these things everyone is asking each other "where were you when..."
So, the Chateau NapaAddick 2017 Vintage Cabernet might have a slightly smoky bouquet.
None of us here in London can ever I think comprehend the effect of a 'moving fire'.
If you think about 8,500 homes in our local populated suburban area, then think how spread it that would have to be in a rural territory to reach that figure, it gives a sense of just how breathtakingly massive that must.
Thanks for the update and huge relief you and your family are ok.
I got 'caught' in a bush fire at 2 am in Cape Town about 3 years ago -2nd scariest moment of my life, (first was having to face my ex-wife in the divorce courts).
Thanks for taking the trouble to post at what's obviously a difficult time, Napa. Glad you are OK. Really feel for those that have lost their friends and livelihoods.
Incomprehensible to most of us. Glad you have come through physically unscathed personally, Napa, but must still take a mental toll. Hope Charlton provides a bit of escapism for you at such a difficult time x
This is the best video I've seen about how close it was for some people to get away from the flames. This was 1.5km from our home, but our evacuation was not this frantic. It shows how bad the wind was and why it spread so fast. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ajrXwD0Cho
A friend of mine was evacuated from Calistoga and stayed with me for 6 days until he could go back. I live in Walnut Creek which is about 20 miles south of Napa Valley so uncomfortably close. For days we had a smokey haze during the day with a smoke orange sun. A bit like Armageddon. The sad thing about my mate is that he has been convalescing in Calistoga at his step mum's place since last October when he was diagnosed with brain cancer. A traumatic time last week - all the horrors of this fire and my friend in a bad way with his health.
Some other people I know were evacuated from Santa Rosa and they weren't sure if their house would still be there when they went back.
I actually was a bit worried that the fire would spread down to Walnut Creek. It was pretty scary all round for a few days.
Comments
Echo your thoughts re NapaAddick. Let’s hope we hear from him soon!
Stay safe @NapaAddick.
We are okay. No power for 18 hours. We were near the evac zone early this morning but did not have to leave.
The biggest part of the Santa Rosa fire came near us but angled away and hit Fountain Grove. Lots of places I know here in Santa Rosa have been destroyed, including my favorite restaurant, "Willi's Wine Bar." No electricity and nothing is open, including gas stations. Air quality is really poor.
Confirmed 7 dead but they expect it to rise, in Sonoma. Just got word that downtown Glen Elen was spared and the Oakmont 55+ Community as well.
Press conference moments ago say 30,000 acres and 0% contained for the Santa Rosa Fire. The Nuns Canyon fire in Kenwood is 7,000 acres may have taken Ch St Jean. That one probably can't reach us and it is 6 miles away. Mostly firefighters are still just evacuating rather than fighting the fire here.
Where I make my wine is still standing but no real word on the condition of the wines and whether they were affected by the smoke. We really won't know that for many days or weeks is my guess.
---
My mum texted me late last night to ask if we'd had any wildfires or smoke. I was a bit confused given we'd had rain most of last week and were due for more this week. I didn't really understand until I opened up the LA Times website. I completely missed this, I didn't realize how bad it is. We had our share of fires and smoke up here, but fortunately most of them were far away from us and largely from civilization.
Growing up in LA and having lived in SD, I'm used to fires in that area. I don't remember anything like this in northern California (note, SDAddick's memory is not a good record of time). Went to uni up there and it is an incredibly beautiful area. I hope they get some rain soon. It's October FFS (to be fair September is usually the hottest month up there). Going on what the PNW had this summer I fear that the only thing that will really contain these fires is rain.
Glad you are ok @NapaAddick
Thanks for the thoughts, everyone.
It's been a crazy 2 weeks. Harvest was already underway when the fires started. We had to evacuate twice from our home in Santa Rosa, Sonoma. The first night, the Tubbs Fire came within 1 kilometer of our house. It destroyed 2600 homes in the adjoining neighborhood and 900 homes in the one next to that. We know people who lost their homes, including one friend who had just purchased it and moved in 3 days before.
We evacuated due to the Oakmont Fire three days later, again. That was the fastest and scariest thing I've ever been through, including all the quakes I have lived through. We had no notice at 5am and literally ran to the car. We were away from home until 4 days ago. The house made it.
We had to evac my mom from the Oakmont Retirement Community in Sonoma the day before. The fire got within 1/2 kilometer of her place but it survived. She moved back 5 days ago.
The Tubbs Fire nearly burned down the winery I make my Cabernet at (on Tubbs Lane, in Calistoga.) and I had fruit hanging on Atlas Peak (The Atlas Peak Fire was the one that hit Napa.)
The last 5 days have been getting back some sense of normality and finishing harvest.
Despite being directly threatened by all 4 major fires (Tubbs, Nuns, Atlas, Oakmont) I feel very lucky. The total damage thus far in wine country is... 8400 homes and businesses burned down, 90,000 hectares burned, 44 dead and 67 still missing. Plus, all the cancelled trips to wine country have hotel and restaurant business off 66%. That really hurts people who live off tips. I feel for them more than winery owners.
But we will recover. It will just take time. This is one of these things everyone is asking each other "where were you when..."
And now, thanks to your latest post, we can fill in some of the blanks.
What a dramatic time for you all up in beautiful Napa!
None of us here in London can ever I think comprehend the effect of a 'moving fire'.
If you think about 8,500 homes in our local populated suburban area, then think how spread it that would have to be in a rural territory to reach that figure, it gives a sense of just how breathtakingly massive that must.
Thanks for the update and huge relief you and your family are ok.
Some other people I know were evacuated from Santa Rosa and they weren't sure if their house would still be there when they went back.
I actually was a bit worried that the fire would spread down to Walnut Creek. It was pretty scary all round for a few days.
Thoughts and best wishes to all those affected