Glass Fire | |
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Date(s) |
|
Location | Wine Country |
Coordinates | 38°32′11.8″N122°29′02″W / 38.536611°N 122.48389°W |
Statistics | |
Total fires | 3 |
Burned area | 67,484 acres (27,310 ha) [1] |
Impacts | |
Structures destroyed | 1,555 destroyed |
Ignition | |
Cause | Under investigation (origin point is near a machine shed in Deer Park) |
Map | |
The Glass Fire was a wildfire in Northern California, that started on September 27, 2020, at 3:48 AM (PDT) from an undetermined cause and was active for 23 days. [2] It was part of the 2020 California Wildfires and the 2020 Western United States wildfire season. The fire was named due to its origin nearby Glass Mountain Road in Deer Park, Napa County, and it extended also into Sonoma County. [3] [4] [5] [6] Initially a single 20-acre brush fire, it rapidly grew and merged with two smaller fires that expanded to 11,000 acres during the night of September 27 into September 28. [7] [8] [9]
The Glass Fire was fully contained on October 20, 2020, after burning over 67,484 acres and destroying 1,555 structures, including 308 homes and 343 commercial buildings in Napa County, as well as 334 homes in Sonoma County. [10] [11] No injuries or deaths were reported as a result of the fire. [12] An estimated 70,000 people were under evacuation orders in the regions surrounding the Glass Fire. [13] CAL FIRE officials lifted all remaining evacuation orders related to the fire on October 19, 2020. [14]
Numerous structures were destroyed in Deer Park, including the Foothills Adventist Elementary School. [15] Additionally, the fire destroyed or damaged 31 wineries, restaurants, and lodges in the region, including the famous 41-year-old Chateau Boswell Winery near St. Helena, and the 13th-century–style winery Castello di Amorosa winery near Calistoga, which lost $5 million worth of wine (based on 120,000 bottles), though its $30 million castle remains safe. [16] California's oldest resort, the White Sulphur Springs Resort, was also destroyed. [17] The three-Michelin-starred The Restaurant at Meadowood also burned to the ground on September 28, 2020. [18]
Following the Glass Fire, viticulturists in the Napa Valley were uncertain about whether their grape harvests would be affected by smoke taint. Eight percent of the season's wine grapes were left unharvested as unusable. [19]
More than 2,000 firefighters participated in the extinguish efforts. [20] [21]
Soon after the fire began, on September 27, 2020 the California Governor's Office of Emergency Services (Cal OES) secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help ensure the availability of vital resources to suppress the Glass Fire. [22]
On September 28, 2020, California Governor Gavin Newsom declared the state of emergency for Napa, Sonoma and Shasta counties due to the Glass and Zogg fires ravaging the area at the time. [23] A day later, on September 29, the Governor signed a series of bills aimed at improving the state's wildfire preparedness, supporting the mitigation efforts, and assisting victims. [24] On October 1, 2020, Newsom visited an area in Napa county hard hit by the Glass Fire and promised at a press conference that he would seek long-term solutions to the wildfire problems facing the state. [25]
On October 7, 2020, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection announced an investigation into allegations that private firefighting crews set illegal backfires to protect their clients' properties from the Glass Fire during the first week of October. [26] This practice has sparked controversy over safety issues and unequal access to resources for private property protection. [27]
On October 22, 2020, Governor Newsom announced that the Counties of Napa and Sonoma were added to the Presidential Major Disaster Declaration, which was initially approved by the White House on October 16, 2020 to bolster California's emergency response to wildfires across the state. [28] [29] [30] The Declaration also allowed individuals who lost their home or sustained other losses due to wildfires to apply for federal assistance to help them pay for such needs as rent, home repairs, medical, dental or funeral costs, and other serious disaster-related expenses. [31]
On October 21, 2020, video evidence of Napa and Sonoma damaged wineries [32] once again triggered thinking about the role of defensible space [33] in reducing the impact of unwanted wildfire, [34] and underscored the importance of maintaining a buffer area to reduce structural damage, such as that suffered by the wineries in Napa and Sonoma as a result of the Glass Fire. [35] In Australia, for example, fire-prone areas [36] were identified and combined with a Geography Information System to mitigate their negative impact on lives and infrastructures. Specific restrictions in the Building Code of Australia were also highlighted for construction inside these regions. [37]
Regarding reconstruction [38] in affected counties, the instructions from the California State Government [39] suggested removing nearby vegetation and using fire-resistant building materials. [40] Although there are studies and examples proving that fire incidents that occur in extreme weather are difficult to avoid despite defensible space policies, [41] this will allow estate owners and firefighters to have more reaction time. [42]
Wildfire smoke created hazardous conditions in the region in September 2020. Smoke from wildfires in Northern California polluted the air, with air quality index readings reaching 170, [43] well above the threshold considered “unhealthy” air quality. [44]
Exposure to wildfire smoke can have adverse effects on human health, including lung capacity development among children. [45] According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), those with an existing respiratory illness, cardiovascular disease or diabetes, as well as seniors, children, and pregnant women, are at higher risk of health complications when exposed to wildfire smoke. [46] Stanford University researchers estimate that approximately 3,000 deaths in August and September 2020 in California can be attributed to exposure to wildfire smoke, especially among seniors with pre-existing conditions. [47]
Exposure to wildfire smoke also takes a toll on healthcare systems, with visits to emergency rooms for respiratory symptoms spiking during wildfire events. [48] Two evacuations in five weeks of the Adventist St. Helena Hospital in Napa County forced all patients and staff to relocate, [49] limiting access to health care.
Napa County is a county north of San Pablo Bay located in the northern portion of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 138,019. The county seat is the City of Napa. Napa County was one of the original counties of California, created in 1850 at the time of statehood. Parts of the county's territory were given to Lake County in 1861.
Wine Country is a region of California, in the northern San Francisco Bay Area, known worldwide as a premier wine-growing region. The region is famed for its wineries, its cuisine, Michelin star restaurants, boutique hotels, luxury resorts, historic architecture, and culture. Viticulture and wine-making have been practiced in the region since the Spanish missionaries from Mission San Francisco Solano established the first vineyards in 1812.
Sonoma County wine is wine made in Sonoma County, California, in the United States.
Castello di Amorosa is a winery located near Calistoga, California. The winery opened to the public in April 2007, as the project of a fourth-generation vintner, Dario Sattui, who also owns and operates the V. Sattui Winery named after his great-grandfather, Vittorio Sattui, who originally established a winery in San Francisco in 1885 after emigrating from Italy to California.
California wine production has a rich viticulture history since 1680 when Spanish Jesuit missionaries planted Vitis vinifera vines native to the Mediterranean region in their established missions to produce wine for religious services. In the 1770s, Spanish missionaries continued the practice under the direction of the Father Junípero Serra who planted California's first vineyard at Mission San Juan Capistrano.
Lake County wine designates wine made from grapes grown mostly in Lake County, California. The region is located north of Napa County and east of Mendocino County. Although each region within Lake County has unique viticultural attributes, many are influenced by Clear Lake, the largest inland body of water in California.
The Wragg Fire was a wildland fire that started just off California State Route 128 near Lake Berryessa in Napa County, California in the United States. The fire started on July 22, 2015. The cause was an idling vehicle's car exhaust. The vehicle came into contact with dry grass and sparked the fire. Mandatory evacuations for 136 homes and 200 residents took place. Six roads were closed temporarily as a result.
The Valley Fire was a wildfire during the 2015 California wildfire season that started on September 12 in Lake County, California. It began shortly after 1:00 pm near Cobb with multiple reports of a small brush fire near the intersection of High Valley and Bottlerock Roads. It quickly spread and by 6:30 PM PDT, it had burned more than 10,000 acres (40 km2). By Sunday, the thirteenth of September, the fire had reached 50,000 acres (202 km2) and had destroyed much of Cobb, Middletown, Whispering Pines, and parts in the south end of Hidden Valley Lake. The fire ultimately spread to 76,067 acres (308 km2), killed four people and destroyed nearly 2,000 buildings, before it was fully contained on October 15, 2015, causing at least $921 million in insured property damage. At the time, the fire was the third-most destructive fire in California history, based on the total structures burned, but the Camp Fire (2018) and the North Complex fire in 2020, exceeded that total.
Jean-Charles Boisset is a French vintner and the proprietor of the Boisset Collection, which operates 28 wineries in California, France, and Canada.
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The Atlas Fire was a 2017 wildfire burning in Napa County, California north of the city of Napa, near Napa Soda Springs. It was one of fourteen large fires simultaneously burning in eight Northern California counties, in what was called the "Northern California firestorm". Governor Jerry Brown declared a state of emergency.
The October 2017 Northern California wildfires, also known as the Northern California firestorm, North Bay Fires, and the Wine Country Fires were a series of 250 wildfires that started burning across the state of California, United States, beginning in early October. Twenty-one became major fires that burned at least 245,000 acres (99,148 ha).
The 2019 California wildfire season was a series of wildfires that burned across the U.S. state of California as part of the 2019 wildfire season. By the end of the year, according to Cal Fire and the US Forest Service, 7,860 fires were recorded, totaling an estimated of 259,823 acres of burned land. These fires caused 22 injuries, 3 fatalities, and damaged or destroyed 732 structures. The 2019 California fire season was less active than that of the two previous years, which set records for acreage, destructiveness, and deaths.
The Kincade Fire was a wildfire that burned in Sonoma County, California in the United States. The fire started northeast of Geyserville in The Geysers on 9:24 p.m. on October 23, 2019, and subsequently burned 77,758 acres (31,468 ha) until the fire was fully contained on November 6, 2019. The fire threatened over 90,000 structures and caused widespread evacuations throughout Sonoma County, including the communities of Geyserville, Healdsburg, Windsor, and Santa Rosa. The majority of Sonoma County and parts of Lake County were under evacuation warnings and orders. Lake county only had one evacuation order and that was the town of Middletown. The fire was the largest of the 2019 California wildfire season, and also the largest wildfire recorded in Sonoma County at the time before being surpassed by the LNU Lightning Complex fires in 2020.
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