FIRE IN WINE COUNTRY
by Esther Mobley
The Pickett Fire is still burning in Napa County, one week after igniting. But the outlook is positive: No structures have been confirmed as damaged or destroyed, and the containment percentage has risen to 33%. As it’s moved through more than 6,800 acres of this rural northeastern corner of the county, the flames have mostly consumed open land.
In fact, the fight against the Pickett Fire can already be considered a remarkable success — and the mood in Napa County reflects that.
“I’m not a firefighter, but I’m feeling good about it,” said Jeff Parady, a seventh-generation Pope Valley landowner and owner of Parady Family Wines. Cal Fire and local firefighters, he added, have “got this handled.”
The optimism is a far cry from the panic that surrounded the Glass Fire, which initially followed a similar path as this one five years ago. “The Glass Fire was scary and apocalyptic,” said Chris Jambois, owner of Black Sears Winery on Howell Mountain, who saw that 2020 fire destroy seven acres of his vines and damage his winery. “This felt like they had it under control.”
It’s no mystery why the firefighting effort has gone more smoothly this time around. When the Glass Fire erupted in late September 2020, there had been hundreds of wildfires throughout the state already in the season — it remains the most destructive wildfire year in California’s modern history — and resources were stretched thin. Wine Country had seen a cluster of wildfires only a month prior, following a siege of dry-lighting strikes.
When the Pickett Fire began last week, by contrast, “there weren’t a lot of areas in California depleting these resources,” said Cal Fire public information officer Caitlin Grace.
The resources applied to this incident on Wednesday alone were tremendous: 2,785 personnel (as opposed to 185 to the Glass Fire), 11 helicopters (zero to the Glass Fire), 251 engines (10 to the Glass Fire), 62 dozers (10 to the Glass Fire) and 35 water tenders (seven to the Glass Fire).
The Glass Fire ultimately burned over 67,000 acres, destroying over 1,500 structures and damaging an additional 282. It wrecked dozens of Napa Valley wineries, including Cain, Newton, Spring Mountain Vineyard, Hourglass and Burgess.
Ferocious winds spread the Glass Fire all across Napa Valley, from east to west, whereas the Pickett Fire has been constrained by less windy, less hot conditions. And the fact that this wildfire has spread through the Glass Fire’s burn scar also helped: There is only a few years’ worth of new vegetative growth.
“It is fundamentally a different kind of fire,” said Joe Nordlinger, CEO of the Napa Communities Firewise Foundation.
A game changer for the Pickett Fire has been the use of nighttime Fire Hawk helicopters, a relatively new technology. They allow crews to continue aerial firefighting throughout the night by dropping water and fire retardant and providing navigation for ground crews.
Another coup: Cal Fire Helitack crews carved out two helipads in some of the remote terrain where the Pickett Fire is burning. This allowed them to drop off hand crews who would have otherwise had to hike up to three miles, shaving hours off of their transportation time.
Finally, Grace said, the community’s extreme preparedness made a big difference. In the Aetna Springs area, where the Pickett Fire was threatening buildings, “those property owners had such good defensible space practices in place,” she said.
She noted that Napa Firewise’s fuel reduction projects had also helped mitigate the damage. One particular project in Dutch Henry Canyon, said Nordlinger, seems to have kept the blaze from creeping into a neighborhood.
The 33% containment figure might not sound like a lot, but “the low containment isn’t necessarily due to a large threat to the public,” Grace cautioned. “It’s more that we’re making absolutely sure that the fire will not cross those containment lines.” The west side of the fire is highly contained, she said, and the focus now is on strengthening the lines in the northeast, which is the steepest section of the fire.
This rugged corner of Napa County is a place where people have gotten used to taking care of themselves. For some vintners, the arrival of so many state resources has been almost jarring — in a good way.
In 2020, groups of residents in Pope Valley and Howell Mountain bulldozed their own containment lines to save homes in their communities. This time, the bulldozers came to them. On Saturday, Parady, who in addition to a winery also owns the auto repair shop Pope Valley Garage, loaded a dozer onto a trailer so that he could carve out a fire break around his home. When he arrived at his property, a Cal Fire crew was already there. They told Parady that six bulldozers were on their way.
Parady figured he’d better get out of their way. “It was like watching a symphony, each of those dozers cutting a line,” he said. “We got spoiled this time.”
Still, no one in these fire-prone districts is getting too comfortable. “We’ve got 90-plus days potentially of fire weather, potentially when there will be some other competing fires,” Nordlinger said. “While there’s a lot that appears to be positive about how this is unfolding, we need people to maintain their vigilance and preparedness.”
WHAT LESSONS CAN PARENTS AND TEENS LEARN FROM UNKNOWN NUMBER: THE HIGH SCHOOL CATFISH?
Filmmaker Borgman hopes the film sparks important conversations between parents and kids about technology and trust. “This [case] is a crazy circumstance, but kids are getting terrible text messages every single day, and they’re dealing with cyberbullying every single day. The FBI might not be getting involved, but they’re dealing with it,” she says, noting the maturity and resilience shown by the teens at the center of Unknown Number: The High School Catfish. “Each and every one of them in the film was so mature about it and so willing to help and willing to try to find out what was happening, despite not being believed, despite having fingers pointed at them. So it’s a bigger message, I think, that all these kids wanted to put out there, and hopefully it’s what the documentary does.”
When asked about the film’s call to action, Borgman is clear: “Listen to your kids, understand the threats that are out there, and give them the ability to make good decisions.”
Unknown Number: The High School Catfish is now streaming on Netflix.
ED NOTE: Pretty hard to shock this old dog, but this Netflix doc shivered my ancient timbers. Every parent should see it, while I added it to my long list of reasons why social media, and the internet with it, should be offed.
THE DEMOCRATIC PARTY is going the way of the Whigs. Everybody hates Trump, but no one wants to join the Democratic Party of broken promises, corporate money grabbers and senile leaders, who hold on to their seats by killing off every youth movement fueled by new popular ideas. They can’t raise money and they can’t register new voters. Since 2020, the Democrats have lost ground to the Republicans in all 30 states where voter registrartion is tracked. In the last four and a half years, the Republicans have registered 4.5 million more new voters than the Democrats.
— Jeffrey St. Clair
“SOMEONE who is permanently surprised that depravity exists, who continues to feel disillusioned (even incredulous) when confronted with evidence of what humans are capable of inflicting in the way of gruesome, hands-on cruelties upon other humans, has not reached moral or psychological adulthood.”
– Susan Sontag, Regarding the Pain of Others
JIM ARMSTRONG (Potter Valley):
These hot August days make me think about what Potter Valley will be like if the Eel River diversion system is destroyed. Three or four years from now, the pastures would be brown, the trees dying and our wells dry. Humboldt County, PG&E and Jared Huffman have made it their priority to leave a portion of California in permanent drought. Residents of Potter Valley have used the lucky coincidence of the nearness of the Eel for thousands of years. We need to get totally committed to saving that relationship by all means necessary right now.
“YOU EXPECTED to be sad in the fall. Part of you died each year when the leaves fell from the trees and their branches were bare against the wind and the cold, wintery light. But you knew there would always be the spring, as you knew the river would flow again after it was frozen. When the cold rains kept on and killed the spring, it was as though a young person died for no reason.”
— Ernest Hemingway, ‘A Moveable Feast’
“ALL I CAN SAY IS, it's a good thing we didn't win the revolution [laughter]. We would've ended up with people like Abbie Hoffman and Eldridge Cleaver at the helm; we would've been in big trouble. Big trouble. It would've been such a Stalinist purge. All those people who were the top names in those movements back then were all egotistical assholes, it turned out, every single one of them.”
— R. Crumb
A READER WRITES: Charles Bush, past Fort Bragg Senior Center Director was a very nice person, and it translated to a very warm, welcoming place. A highly successful place. The new Director is different; a very nice, person, too, but very organized. She transformed the SCenter into a more Urban place. A highly successful place.
“WE ARE MARCHING in a compact group along a precipitous and difficult path, firmly holding each other by the hand. We are surrounded on all sides by enemies, and we have to advance almost constantly under their fire. We have combined, by a freely adopted decision, for the purpose of fighting the enemy, and not of retreating into the neighbouring marsh, the inhabitants of which, from the very outset, have reproached us with having separated ourselves into an exclusive group and with having chosen the path of struggle instead of the path of conciliation. And now some among us begin to cry out: Let us go into the marsh! And when we begin to shame them, they retort: What backward people you are! Are you not ashamed to deny us the liberty to invite you to take a better road! Oh, yes, gentlemen! You are free not only to invite us, but to go yourselves wherever you will, even into the marsh. In fact, we think that the marsh is your proper place, and we are prepared to render you every assistance to get there. Only let go of our hands, don’t clutch at us and don’t besmirch the grand word freedom, for we too are “free” to go where we please, free to fight not only against the marsh, but also against those who are turning towards the marsh!”
— Vladimir Lenin, ‘What is to be Done?’
FRANK HARTZELL (Coast Chatline):
I guesss the local news discussion lasted four exchanges and is now back to 10,000 discussions about Trump and the Democrats and a bunch of others not listening to us and which will change the mind of no one?
THE SHERIFF’S NEW RECRUITS
It was a good day at the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office this morning. Sheriff Kendall, in the presence of MCSO staff members, families and other loved ones, led a ceremony this morning to introduce and swear-in new members of the Sheriff’s Office, who will be assigned to several vital units.
The Sheriff introduced Account Specialist Omega Clemens, who is assigned to our fiscal unit; Venessa Silveira, who will supervise our evidence and property room; and Legal Secretary Diandra Lopez, who returns to our front office in the Ukiah administration office.
Members who took the peace officer’s oath of office included new Corrections Deputy Nizamaith Cruz Hernandez and recent police academy graduates Dahl Del Fiorentino and Santiago Olea Vargas. All three are beginning their training as they start their peace officer careers.
Please join us in congratulating and welcoming our new Sheriff’s Office members.
COMMENTING ON the 2013 Grand Jury’s report about Mendo’s jail food, AVA Editor Bruce Anderson wrote:
I loved the Grand Jury’s two phrases: “Nutraloaf is usually bland, perhaps even unpleasant….”
The only way you could un-bland and un-unpleasant this uniquely unappetizing glop is to kick it down the road a hundred yards, get your dog to whiz on it, dip it in used motor oil, and leave it out in the sun for a couple of years. Really, the Donner Party would have thrown this stuff back out into the snow. But then at the ball game the other day I watched four women old enough to know better eat those big, dry ball park pretzels dipped in mustard. Given the choice I’d go for Nutraloaf.
“THE GREAT BULK of the legal voters of the South were men who owned no slaves; their homes were generally in the hills and poor country; their facilities for educating their children, even up to the point of reading and writing, were very limited; their interest in the contest was very meagre — what there was, if they had been capable of seeing it, was with the North; they too needed emancipation. Under the old regime they were looked down upon by those who controlled all the affairs in the interest of slave-owners, as poor white trash who were allowed the ballot so long as they cast it according to direction.”
― Ulysses S. Grant
OBVIOUSLY, where art has it over life is in the matter of editing. Life can be seen to suffer from a drastic lack of editing. It stops too quick, or else it goes on too long. Worse, its pacing is erratic. Some chapters are little more than a few sentences in length, while others stretch into volumes. Life, for all its raw talent, has little sense of structure. It creates amazing textures, but it can't be counted on for snappy beginnings or good endings either. Indeed, in many cases no ending is provided at all.
— Larry McMurtry
NFL SEASON PREVIEW
Week 1 is finally here, and the Philadelphia Eagles are starting the season where they ended the last one — on top. There are some contenders for the throne right behind them, though, including the Green Bay Packers and their new pass rusher.
. . .
15. San Francisco 49ers
Christian McCaffrey had a quiet and seemingly healthy training camp, but who knows who Brock Purdy is going to be throwing to? Deebo Samuel is in Washington now. Jauan Jennings requested a trade and missed most of training camp due to a calf injury. Brandon Aiyuk (knee) is starting the season on the PUP list, so he’ll be out at least four games, and Demarcus Robinson was suspended for the first three games. Ricky Pearsall may end up being the biggest fantasy football surprise of the season.
(The Athletic)
“CRYING IS ALL RIGHT in its way while it lasts. But you have to stop sooner or later, and then you still have to decide what to do.”
― C.S. Lewis, ‘The Silver Chair’
ON LINE COMMENTS OF THE WEEK
[1] Over-schooled and Under-educated. We have systematically been having our ability to think for ourselves bred out of us by the newest class to arise in our society, the credentialed elite, the “experts.” Since over-schooled,credentialed “experts” took control of our institutions some time ago their ranks have swelled with true believers and those who touch the hem of the garments of the Elite.That was the genesis of the decline of our democracy, and the marginalization of common sense. Because this new class controls the main stream media, they control the meaning of words, and thus can distort any issue. Opinion becomes fact. Dissenter becomes threat/”enemy.” “He who defines the terms wins the debate.” This new elite credentialed class also controls government so they can enforce their self affirmed edicts. Our last vestige of hope for protecting Truth in the face of this self-serving credentialed dictatorship was Science which is dedicated to holding every idea open to scrutiny, to testing and honest reporting of findings. Sadly, we saw during Covid that this, too, had been corrupted by the credentialed elite who held power over the scientists. As much as I might criticize some actions by the Trump administration, I see his victory and continuing support as an indication that common sense is still alive. So, maybe this is neo-neo Marxism, with the combatants being Elites versus Everyman.
[2] The truth is there are plenty of trans folks trying to live their lives, but the disproportionate amount of violence in that community shouldn’t be ignored. Is it mental illness associated with the trans condition? Is it depression spawned from the unfortunate condition that leads them to be medicated with SSRIs and antipsychotics, which seem to cause violent tendencies in some people? A little from column A and a little from column B? Testosterone and other hormone supplementation? Hormones mixed with other meds? I’ve known some pretty aggressive trans people and it seems like more than a ‘chip on the shoulder’ situation. I’ve joked that a trans guy (woman? - the male that wants to be female) is like a woman with serious PMS, but man bones and muscles. Scary.
[3] What really gets overlooked is some people are simply broken. In previous societies, we banished or killed such broken people, because they are toxic to society. This is not a “fixable” thing. Some people aren’t meant for the living. Our society is way too death-phobic. Life and Death. Those who don’t want to be alive shouldn’t be coerced to live. Psychiatry is a scam, it’s a pseudoscience. None of this bullshit is fixable. We need to get away from the “fix it” model.
[4] American history books should celebrate our scientific and technological achievements not as one thing we did but as the central factor in the story of America’s success. We really don’t need to know much about the Spanish American war. Every American with a high school education should know how miserable life was before western achievements--mostly in the US--of the last 150 years.
[5] There are a lot of bright and serious members of Congress. But a lot (most) are really dumb. If you meet and talk to them it is shocking how dim witted and ignorant they are. Both parties are represented, but lately the Dems are trying to win the stupid sweepstakes.
[6] I’m 43 and I’m not comfortable discussing much about my personal life but can give a brief professional outline: I double majored in English and Ecology with a Chemistry minor from U of Illinois. My grades were excellent but I didn’t have the temperament for grad school. I moved to TX to work in environmental consulting. I turned down an offer from Cheniere Energy to stay at home with my kids (I have 3). This ended my professional life and was one of several factors (another being the death of my brother) ending my marriage. Since then, I’ve managed a hobby farm. I also work in agricultural retail, and do odd work as a freelance writer. C.S. Lewis and my children were literally the only people keeping me non-suicidal after my husband left. I desperately needed a kind, wise father figure and his writings provided that. I feel very strongly about him. I am not being hyperbolic when I say that he made me who I am today.
[7] WHO’S PROTECTING US? (An on-line pair of inquiries)
(a) I am not medically trained, but I am the widow of a wonderful man who took different anti-epileptic medicines over the years for his partial epilepsy. Several of these made him paranoid. One made him suicidal. When those particular drugs were discontinued, he returned to himself. I keep wondering how long this neurological devastation because of pharmaceuticals will go on. Illegal drugs can also cause paranoia and schizoid breaks. Why is the Left so invested in their gun control narrative that they give only glancing notice to the role of drug-induced mental illness in these mass shootings? Why do many on the Left continue to argue for “housing first” and “harm reduction” when it’s clear that the mentally ill and drug addicted should receive treatment in long-term residential facilities where drugs of all kinds can either be monitored for efficacy or banned. Families and jails are now the caretakers for the severely--sometimes dangerously--mentally ill and/or addicted.
(b) “Advocates” for the mentally ill crippled our institutional solutions for the the problem back in the ‘80s. Now it’s near impossible to get an unstable individual committed because they have to have buy-in. There’s no committing them against their will.
My sister-in-law’s schizophrenic and we were unable to do anything with her until she got into it with the cops. Needless to say, these types of “solutions” can get someone killed. How many seriously mentally ill people, like the Annuciation shooter, are wandering around at this moment simply because they haven’t killed someone yet? What’s it going to take?
Clearly it’s madness that some of the very drugs used to treat depression in this country state on the box a very real possibility of suicidal/homicidal ideation. It’s like treating an alcoholic with Everclear.
The media has its biases and this incident lays some of them bare. We’re not allowed to honestly address gender dysphoria or any other psychosis for fear of upsetting the subject. The Left will push housing (does nothing), and “harm reduction” (polypharmacy). I cringe when I hear the talking heads say the shooters needed medical intervention because that only means on thing: more pills. Like that’s solved anything yet.
And anti-Catholic bigotry is probably the most acceptable bigotry in the country as far as the media’s concerned. They can’t bring themselves to say shooting through a church window during a morning kids’ Mass is anti-Catholic. They wouldn’t say shit with a mouthful, apparently.
Tim Walz was given a chance a few years ago to extend state security to private schools. He did nothing. However, he fretted over the trans community like they were newborns. He was sure to protect them.
But who’s protecting us?
Be First to Comment