Figured I’d start a thread about this new fire as I can’t seem to find too much info yet on it. Since many wineries are in the area can anyone shed some light on what’s going on? Any wineries affected/threatened?
News reporting this started as a residential fire, has spread to 125 acres, around the intersection of Bear Creek and Dear Creek Rds. There are some wineries/vineyards in the area, notably Byington and David Bruce. No idea if they are affected.
NBC reported this morning that David Bruce was affected. I’d take that with a grain of salt until it’s confirmed. They might have just googled to see what’s in the area.
I haven’t been up on this since this morning, but I can say that Livermore is very smoky today, worst since early last week. No idea what direction the smoke is coming from. There were a number of firefighting planes and helicopters staging at Livermore airport this morning, but they have moved on to the south.
Doesn’t surprise me, Larry. As I was walking yesterday here in Fremont, I could see a streak of smoke heading toward Pleasanton/Livermore direction over the hills.
Currently Highway 35 to 9 is back open. I haven’t driven over there to see… I live very close to all this and we have been busy packing yesterday in case the wind brought the fire toward us. A constant barrage of heli’s scooping water from Lexington Resovoir and dumping on the fire.
Still only %10 contained. We are prepared to evacuate if needed.
Calfire Info here:
http://www.fire.ca.gov/current_incidents/incidentdetails/Index/1902
Good luck Sean.
David Bruce and Byington are the closest to the fire and maybe Silvertip Vineyards and Zayante Vineyards. Also I believe the old St. Charles vineyard is that area (if it still around).
Lots of progress on containing the fire. Still only 320 acres and now 30% contained. Hopefully fire fighters will have a productive and injury free today.
Sean
Some of the smoke in Livermore on Tuesday was from a grass fire in east Dublin north of 580. Fortunately, it was contained fairly quickly (that’s the nature of grass fires in open areas), but it made a fair bit of smoke.
The issues in the Santa Cruz mountains are the steep terrain and lack of accessibility, coupled with the very dense underbrush because it gets so much rain in the winter. I think another factor is the jumble of canyons and ravines that cause the fire to start looking like an octopus with a number of tentacles that increases the perimeter of the fire and makes it more difficult to attack than a compact fire of the same area.
-Al
That makes more sense. What I could see over the hills looked too focused and distinct to be from Napa or Sonoma.
We were acutely aware of that fire given its proximity to our office and two colleagues homes under shelter in place order, and a friend’s kids evacuated from school about ¼ mile from the burn. It looks surreal today, hills painted black and streaked with red from retardant drops.
I think in the end, the Dublin fire wasn’t that big of a deal, not even unusual, but everyone’s nerves are frayed. Really looking forward to rain tonight.