A 60-acre wildfire broke out Wednesday afternoon, June 5, northeast of St. Helena in the scar of the 2020 Glass Fire, burning heat-cured grasses and threatening structures about 7 miles away. the town near Deer Park on the eastern flank of Napa Valley.
A second day of temperatures in the upper 90s and 100s Celsius primed the fuels for ignition and allowed the flames to spread rapidly. The fire started north of Reverie II Vineyard & Winery, in the 200 block of Crystal Springs Road, approximately 6 miles from the origin of the 67,484-acre Glass Fire that broke out on September 27, 2020.
But unlike that fire, which jumped the Napa Valley and swept through the Mayacamas Mountains toward Santa Rosa hours later, the Crystal Fire had high temperatures without the extreme winds that have caused catastrophic fires in the region and western states in the last years.
There were no evacuation orders or immediate reports of structural losses in the fire. Two firefighters affected by the heat were taken to the hospital, authorities said, but no other injuries were immediately reported.
Southwest winds were also expected to decrease overnight and humidity to increase to 75% or 80%, which would aid firefighting efforts.
“It’s windy here,” Cal Fire public information officer Jason Clay said from the fire scene Wednesday afternoon, “but it’s not a dangerous wind right now. But we’ll see how that plays out as the afternoon turns into the evening.”
More than 100 firefighters and significant air coverage rushed to the fire were able to bring containment to 50% approximately three hours after the first report of flames and smoke at 1:40 p.m.
By 10 p.m., containment had increased to 65%, according to Cal Fire. Firefighters also managed to prevent the fire from growing beyond 60 acres.
Still, in the midst of the first heat wave of the season, just days after the 14,000-plus-acre Corral Fire exploded near Tracy, the Crystal Fire set off alarms across the region, where the ghosts of previous fires they take on great importance.
“It’s strange to see this right next to the Glass Fire,” said Tiffany Turner, who drove from Calistoga to watch firefighters work from Silverado Trail Road.
“I wanted to see for myself if the wind would blow this way or that way,” she said, pointing toward the bottom of the populated valley and then toward the more scattered hills to the east.
Shawna Moura, who lives downhill from the front of the fire, less than half a mile from its point of origin, said it was like “lightning striking twice.”
Moura grew up on Crystal Springs Road and said the Glass Fire narrowly missed his parents’ home. They weren’t home when she found out about the wildfire, so after evacuating her own home, she drove there to pick up her dogs and then warned several neighbors.
At 5 p.m., a sheriff’s deputy told her it was safe to return home, and she breathed a sigh of relief.
“I am very, very happy and grateful,” she said.
Clay said there are few roads in the fire area, near Bell Springs Reservoir, making response efforts, which were already a challenge due to the rugged terrain, difficult. But he was not aware of any structural damage or destruction, although firefighters could be seen battling flames around a structure near the Reverie II winery.
Other wine producers in the area include Amulet Estate and Viader Vineyards & Winery.
The Napa County Sheriff’s Office issued evacuation warnings for several areas around the fire, but did not update them to orders.
Clay said the state fire agency has not yet reached full staffing for the year, but has 122 seasonal firefighters finishing the academy, with plans to reach full staffing by June 17. By then, all 21 stations in the six-county Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit would have at least one fire truck ready.
Still, the Crystal Fire attracted at least 116 firefighters from 13 fire trucks, three hand crews, two excavators and other resources, as well as five retardant-dropping air tankers and two FIRE HAWK helicopters capable of dropping 1,000 gallons of water each. one. Local Sonoma County departments also formed a five-engine strike team to fight the fire.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated.
“We had a really strong response with a lot of resources, and the fact that we achieved up to 50% containment is a good sign, but we will continue to work very hard to strengthen the containment lines and work to extinguish that fire within that,” Clay said. “There will be a lot of work ahead for all those reasons.”
Reporters Edward Booth, Martín Espinoza and Madison Smalstig contributed to this story.
You can contact staff writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or [email protected]. On X (Twitter) @MaryCallahanB.
You can contact staff writer Andrew Graham at 707-526-8667 or [email protected]. Follow him on X (Twitter) @AndrewGraham88.
