California wildfires: Nearly 4 million acres have burned statewide as red flag warning looms for Wine Country

Sep. 30--CALISTOGA -- California turns the calendar Thursday into what's typically its most dangerous month of fire season, with nearly 4 million acres burned so far in an epic year that has already doubled previous annual records.

Firefighters made some progress against one of the latest destructive blazes, the Glass Fire in Napa and Sonoma counties' world-famous wine region. But weather forecasters issued red flag warnings from Thursday afternoon until Friday night, predicting gusty winds and warmer temperatures that could worsen that fire and increase the risk of new blazes in the Bay Area.

The threat of winds and rising temperatures prompted California's power-grid managers to call for a Flex Alert on Thursday in hopes of preventing rolling blackouts. Residents are being urged to conserve electricity from 3-10 p.m. Most urban locations away from the coast will be under a heat advisory from 11 a.m. to 8 p.m.

By mid-day Wednesday, roughly 3,925,000 acres had burned statewide in California this year, an area 33 times the size of the city of San Jose and five times the size of Yosemite National Park. Put in context, 1 out of every 25 acres in California has burned this year. The previous modern record was half that -- 1,975,000 acres in 2018.

"You look at the statewide fire map, and you say how can that be?" said Scott McLean, a spokesman for Cal Fire, the state's main firefighting agency. "How can that happen? Is that the fault of anybody? Not specifically. We had major lightning storms last month. This is like 10 years all rolled into one."

McLean and fire scientists around the state have noted that Northern California received half its average annual rainfall this winter. Heat waves have broken records. Decades of fire suppression have made forests in many areas unnaturally dense. The 2012-2017 drought killed millions of trees, along with brush and other vegetation that is burning now. And climate change has increased the severity of heat waves and further dried out trees, brush and grass.

"Two outlier events -- the lightning and the heat waves -- coincided as a double whammy. It's just incredible," said Max Moritz, a fire scientist with UC Santa Barbara. "And with climate change we are probably going to make these extreme events more common. This could be what we are going to see more of. When you put Diablo and Santa Ana winds on top of that, it's really scary."

Santa Ana winds are the infamous dry, gusty winds that blow arid air from the east toward the coast in the fall, particularly October, in Southern California. Diablo winds are the equivalent in Northern California.

Because of those winds, and the fact that October is usually the month when vegetation is driest after a long summer before the first heavy rains begin in November, October can be particularly deadly for fires.

Five of the seven most destructive wildfires in California history, measured by structures destroyed, have occurred in October or November, including the 1991 Oakland Hills Fire, the 2017 Wine Country fires, and the 2018 Camp Fire in Paradise.

"Fire season isn't winding down. We still have a way to go," McLean said.

In Wine Country, favorable weather allowed firefighters to claim their first containment of the blaze Tuesday evening and limit its spread to less than 2,000 additional acres overnight. By Wednesday, the Glass Fire had grown to 48,440 acres in size and was 2% contained. It has destroyed 80 structures, including several wineries, like the Chateau Boswell Winery in St. Helena. Its cause was still under investigation.

The flames have encroached on some of the world's most well-known vineyards, including $5 million worth of wine lost at the Napa Valley's "castle on a hill," Castello di Amorosa. The iconic Meadowood resort -- including its three-Michelin-starred restaurant -- also took extensive damage, but its owner vowed to rebuild.

In Santa Rosa, many of the evacuation orders were downgraded late Tuesday to warnings, allowing about 22,600 residents to return home. About 13,000 Santa Rosa residents are still under evacuation orders, as is the whole town of Calistoga in the Napa Valley.

The fire is largely burning in the brushy hillsides and oak woodlands around Napa Valley, but also is threatening some areas of Sonoma County, including the community of Kenwood. Fire officials expect conditions to deteriorate through Friday night with higher temperatures, lower humidity and gusts up to 30 mph at the highest elevations.

"We're looking at a very similar wind event as when this fire first started about three days ago," said incident commander Billy See. "So now's the time for our firefighters to buckle down."

Brandon Chaney, proprietor and CEO of Fairwinds Estate Winery, returned to see the remnants of his Calistoga winery and tasting room for the first time Wednesday -- two days after the Glass Fire turned the tasting room to rubble and left only the outer concrete walls of the main winery building still standing.

Although both buildings, which are situated on Silverado Trail just east of downtown Calistoga, were completely destroyed, a wine cave tucked underneath the hill behind the winery has saved the lion's share of the company's wine -- at least 50,000 cases, Chaney estimates.

Despite his immense losses and the lengthy insurance claim process that lies ahead, Chaney was already discussing his plans to rebuild.

"Making wine is our passion and just because we had a tragedy, does not mean we're going to abandon our passion," he said.

"Napa Valley isn't going anywhere," Chaney said about the annual threat of wildfires to the future of the region's famous wine industry. "These are some of the best wineries in the world."

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