This morning was pretty rough as the smoke has mixed with the more humid air resulting in a Beijing thick smog sitting over the town. Hopefully, that'll allow firefighters to get an upper hand as winds are expected to pick-up later.

Last night I was able to hike up a hill at one of the popular dogs parks and the eastern hills around Napa were all lit-up, very Mordor looking with the angry orange glow of the various fires burning. Through binos it was disheartening seeing various houses, go up in flames, the bigger the home, the bigger the flames shot-up in the sky.

Drove up around Yountville checking on a friend's place, that fire crept down the hillside from the East into the valley, looked like flowing lava. Various wineries in the Stag Leap area will be affected if not, destroyed; that's very, very good wine for those not aware.

That's it for now, power and cell service is still out, time to go get more ice.

Damn, it sounds like a little slice of hell going on out that way. Have they determined what started it?

Best of luck to all affected!

Good luck and best wishes. That is Beautiful country and this fire is aggressive. I hope you and your families stay safe and have your properties to go back to.

Too many disasters in last month.

So sad to see this destruction. The wife and I have been blessed to visit Napa and Sonoma a few times over the years and hold a special place for the area in our hearts. My thoughts and prayers go out to those of you impacted.

Well, my wife's family home in Rincon Valley is intact. Just very smokey inside. Lots of smoke in the air in Sebastopol. Police still keeping people out of burned areas--or maybe just seeing if they belong.

Yes, Stag's Leap is a rightly famous winery, and their beautiful manor house burned in the fire.

Got power and cell service. I was fully expecting services to be restored later in the week but, we'll see how it holds up.

Very good to hear about your wife's house sjtill. Rincon Valley was right in the target zone. Is there any danger of the newly formed Oakmont fire to the south?

Rutherford is ok. Just south of St Helena but, north of Stag Leap, that area seems to have escaped the flames.

anyone have any idea how this all started?

apparently there is also one in the Anaheim Hills area - saw a sign on 15N today saying that 24 was closed due to fires...

Two fires in Sonoma County have merged and are coming over the hill into Napa County. The Yountville Veterans Home is being evacuated now. The fire that went through East Napa on Sunday night is going into Solano and is supposed to reach Hwy. 80.

The Nuns fire in the Sonoma Valley is going over the hill into southeast Santa Rosa. With 35 mph winds predicted for the next 36 hours or so, this is going to get very very bad before it gets any better.

There is 0% containment on all these fires.

If you are the praying type, we could use them tonight.

quote:

Originally posted by 4ftty4:
Two fires in Sonoma County have merged and are coming over the hill into Napa County. The Yountville Veterans Home is being evacuated now. The fire that went through East Napa on Sunday night is going into Solano and is supposed to reach Hwy. 80.

Yup, just got a text from a friend here in town, he's packing up the family and getting the hell out of Dodge. Mandatory evac just hit the first neighborhood in Napa proper.

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
anyone have any idea how this all started?

apparently there is also one in the Anaheim Hills area - saw a sign on 15N today saying that 24 was closed due to fires...

Lots of fingers starting to be pointed at Pacific Gas & Electric for not trimming trees enough near major power lines. 50 mpg winds apparently blew lines against trees, starting multiple fires

Because of the emergency, the last two P2V Neptunes that were officially retired just nine days ago are going back on the fireline in California:
http://missoulian.com/news/loc...rce=home-top-story-2

quote:

Originally posted by MTJbyrd:
Because of the emergency, the last two P2V Neptunes that were officially retired just nine days ago are going back on the fireline in California:
http://missoulian.com/news/loc...rce=home-top-story-2

I saw one of them this morning. I guess they're getting water from Lake Sonoma, up by Healdsburg.

My brother-in-law asked my wife to put a sprinkler on the roof of the family home. She did...now we agreed she's going back to turn off the water, take a few things and get out. Even if the fires don't come back, the area is very smokey; it's unhealthy and unpleasant. We'll try to get her to Davis and I plan to fly up to Sacto to drive with her back to SD.

Calistoga and Sonoma are mandatory evac as of this afternoon. My coworkers parents live just east of Sonoma plaza and finally bugged out today. National guard driving the streets with loudspeaker telling folks to bail. I spoke with several clients today that have no house now. I have multiple friends of friends and colleagues and clients who have lost everything. Winds are forecasted to be shifting to the worse tonight. Could get worse before it gets better. Emotionally exhausting talking to people who lost everything.

CalFire chief basically said,'It's gonna get worse before it improves.' Sobering

Here in Napa, things are chugging along as normal as can be. Business' are open and nobody is freaking out. Air quality has been horrendous, if you're not wearing a respirator you should have a surgical mask or, bandana on. The smoke is thick enough that the sun was orange all day. No winds and cold evening/morning temps have tamped things down and allowed fire crews to build contingency plans and reinforce lines.

quote:

Originally posted by Orguss:

quote:

Originally posted by MTJbyrd:
Because of the emergency, the last two P2V Neptunes that were officially retired just nine days ago are going back on the fireline in California:
http://missoulian.com/news/loc...rce=home-top-story-2

I saw one of them this morning. I guess they're getting water from Lake Sonoma, up by Healdsburg.

P2V's take retardant from tanker bases, not water. They don't land on the water.

I was based in the area for the later half of the fire season this year, but we were released a week ago and sent home. No indication that we'll be going back.

The smell of smoke filled the air, and hazed the sun, in Silicon Valley today.

quote:

Originally posted by feersum dreadnaught:

quote:

Originally posted by nhtagmember:
anyone have any idea how this all started?

apparently there is also one in the Anaheim Hills area - saw a sign on 15N today saying that 24 was closed due to fires...

Lots of fingers starting to be pointed at Pacific Gas & Electric for not trimming trees enough near major power lines. 50 mph winds apparently blew lines against trees, starting multiple fires

Wow, that sucks. so many fires in so many different locations.

a lot of pics here

http://www.sfgate.com/news/art...4.php#photo-14321692





IMAGE 82 OF 95 The remains of the homes in the Coffey Park neighborhood are seen from the air in Santa Rosa, Calif. on Tuesday, October 10, 2017.

One of my coworkers lived in Coffey Park. Haven't seen him all week and nobody knows what happened to him.