Fire Season Starts Early with 200-Acre Blaze

The plumes of black and gray smoke lingering over the east side of Napa Valley are an unusual site so early in the year, according to CalFire officials.

The smoky skies come from what's being called the , which broke out mid Thursday east of the Silverado Trail. As of noon today, the fire, which has charred 200 acres in the rugged terrain of the canyon, was 50 percent contained.

“It’s very uncommon to have a wildland fire this size and the way it is burning so early in the year. This has all of the indicators of a summer wildland fire,” said CalFire specialist/fire investigator Brian Hampton. “It’s burning in lengths of 60 to 80 feet.”

No lives have been lost and only two minor injuries to firefighters have been reported. At this time no homes have been gobbled up by the wildland fire, Hampton said.

CalFire Chief Tim Streblow said all the elements lined up to fuel the Soda Canyon fire.

“Traditionally, the field moisture drops in the early summer and late fall. But because of warmer temps and lack of rainfall, we don’t have the moisture we normally do at this time of the year,” he said.

“Besides the lack of moisture in the vegetation, there is the wind. If we didn’t have the wind, the fire would not have spread as rapidly as it did,” he said.

“Most of the damage was done within the first 12 hours of the fire. It started mid-day and once the winds died down, we were able to make progress for containment.”

Streblow said the cooler night temperatures helped firefighters get an upper hand on the blaze.

The three homes that were initially threatened had one good thing going for them, Hampton said.

“All three homeowners had defensible space around their homes,” he said.
Defensible space is when the property owner clears brush, high grasses and removes any flammable items from around their home and outbuildings.

“It’s like we say, you (homeowner) do the defense and we (CalFire) will do the offense,” Hampton said.

“The residents of the three threatened homes have returned to their houses. Right now, we have 12 engines, eight hand crews, three water tenders, one helicopter, two bulldozers and about 200 personal on the fire,” Hampton said.

Two firefighters have suffered an ankle and back injury, Hampton said.

CalFire officials said they had no estimate on when the blaze would be fully contained.

“The fire is isolated and in very difficult terrain. The fire crews have to hike in,” Streblow said.

The cause of the fire is an escaped control burn at a private residence on Thursday, Hampton said. As of today, no one has been charged with any criminal wrongdoing, he added. 

However, the is reporting that no burning was authorized in the area yesterday.

For many Napa Valley residents the massive out-of-control wildland fire brings back memories of the June 1981 Atlas Peak fire, which blackened 23,000 acres and destroyed about 60 homes, Streblow said. Although there were several injuries, no lives were lost in that fire.

Streblow believes a lot of firefighting technology has been made since the Atlas Peak fire. “But our resources are pretty much the same.”

For links to all our latest Napa fire coverage, please visit our Fire Watch topic page.

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