Glass fire in Napa Valley went from spectacle to menace in just a few hours

For most of the day Sunday, the nascent Glass fire burning in eastern Napa Valley appeared to be contained to a relatively small hillside pocket.

Checking in with local authorities from the nation’s capital that morning, Rep. Mike Thompson, D-St. Helena, felt reassured his home on the complete opposite side of the valley was safe.

“I was going to come home Sunday, but I called the fire chief and the sheriff and everybody said, ‘Naw, St. Helena’s in good shape, don’t worry about it and come home Monday,’” Thompson recalled.

But that night, the Glass fire suddenly went rogue, spitting wind-fueled embers ahead of its westerly advance across the valley. The mountains above St. Helena exploded in flame, forcing the congressman’s wife and everyone else in the neighborhood to evacuate.

“Everybody said there’s no way it’s going to jump the river, Silverado Trail, and the vineyard, and we know that it did,” Thompson said. “It’s nobody’s fault. It’s just everything’s fine until it’s no longer fine.”

As he spoke, Thompson — who flew home to California on Monday — watched what remained of the restaurant and golf clubhouse at the iconic Meadowood Resort on the east side of the valley burn to the ground. Thompson and Napa County Sheriff John Robertson toured the valley’s hot spots, which were numerous and growing Monday.

None are as known as Meadowood, which has played host to the rich and the famous, including former president George W. Bush when he was still in office. The resort also is the site of the world-renowned Napa Valley Wine Auction.

Fire crews, including those from Southern California, were unable to save the restaurant and several other structures Monday. The fires burned the undergrowth, exposing hillside hideaways where ritzy guests normally found privacy. A white Ferrari in the parking lot, however, appeared unscathed.

From just south of St. Helena north to Calistoga, the scene Monday was apocalyptic, with fires burning in the forested mountains on both sides of the valley. Dense smoke prevented Cal Fire from staging an air assault on the flames, leaving it to weary ground crews to battle it out, one hot spot to another.

The peril escalated late Monday, when Calistoga, home to more than 5,000 people, was placed under mandatory evacuation orders.

At the majestic Castillo de Amorosa winery on the valley’s western flank, an exhausted Cal Fire firefighter with Engine 26 out of St. Helena tried to get a few minutes of sleep while he sat with his head down at a table normally reserved for wine tasting. The crew by then was 36 hours into their shift.

The crew had battled the Glass fire Sunday as it ran laterally on the east side of the valley along Silverado Trail. But early Monday, they raced along as the blaze turned west.

By the time they crew arrived at Castillo de Amorosa, flames shot through the roof of a 145,000-square-foot wine storage and production stone building behind the main castle estate. A structure fire of that size normally would be a two- or three-alarm fire, drawing numerous engines and dozens of firefighters, Cal Fire Cpt. Jason Downs said. Instead, the job fell to him and the three other members of Engine 26.

“We did what we could,” Downs said. “We just started flowing water.”

It appeared Monday the building’s contents were a total loss, despite the herculean efforts of the fire crew, who were assisted by winery employees. The loss included 2,500 cases of wine, steel fermentation tanks and a bottling line, according to Georg Salzner, president of Castillo de Amorosa.

“Look at that. Unbelievable,” Salzner said while looking up at flames shooting from the windows of what used to be his office.

Down the long drive, owner Dario Sattui, 78, appeared tired and a bit dazed. Sattui, who lives a short distance away from his dream estate, said he went to bed early Monday morning without a worry for his castle. But then came a rattling predawn call and the news it was burning.

“I couldn’t believe it,” Sattui said. “I thought there was no way this fire would get across the river. Certainly not the highway.”

Sattui, who in 2010 drew fierce condemnation from firefighters after he published a letter to the editor of the local newspaper criticizing firefighters’ benefits as wasteful, expressed conditional praise Monday for their efforts.

“Had they come a little sooner, they may have saved the building,” he said. “But I want to emphasize I know they are stretched thin. Please don’t get me in trouble with the fire department.”

Back at the castle, Downs pointed downward to a large drainage area where charred trees smoldered. The flames funneled so quickly up the ditch there really was nothing anyone could have done to prevent them from overtaking the castle building, he said.

Similarly, the fire appears to have snaked along creek banks and drainage ditches in numerous areas of the valley floor. People reported finding large chunks of sizzled wood in downtown St. Helena, apparently blown there by gusty winds.

One woman who lives with her husband on Spring Mountain Road above the town described watching flames advance across the valley. The couple, who declined to give their names, then noticed flames in the forest behind them. That’s when they decided to flee.

On the east side Monday afternoon, 84-year-old Ron Katz and his wife, Helaine, who had evacuated Sunday, found their way back into their hillside neighborhood to check on their Bournemouth Road home. They were relieved to find it still standing. Several other homes in the community were a total loss.

Katz expressed wonderment over the fact one of his employees who lives in Sonoma County also evacuated due to the same fire.

“It’s just mind-boggling that it goes so quickly,” he said. “It did it in 2017, and here we go again”.