Thomas Fire in Ventura....

See that there are evacuation orders up along Hwy 33 from Ventura to Ojai.
Fire is creeping north down SulpherMtn. Serious damage in CasitasSprings, leading up
to Ojai. Mandatory evacuation orders along OldCreekRd.
This puts OjaiVnyd & Adam&Helen Tolmach at risk. The phone is not being answered
at the Ojai tasting room in Ojai.
Got phone calls & e-mails into those folks checking on things.
Will try to find out more as I can.
Tom

Scary. How close is that to SQN?

Board member and friend mike stoneking’s House burned down in the fire.

Oh f*ck. That sucks so much.

So sad to hear about Mike’s house. Last night it went hard up to Ventura. Winds have been crazy and finally died down this afternoon. Should have two more days of uncertainty as the winds pick back up. We evacuated Ojai around noon today as the fire got too close for comfort.

Adam’s house is in a danger area but have not heard anything about it being damaged. Everything in Ojai is closed today and is a ghost town excluding all the people leaving. SQN is in a much safer area and should be fine.

We are hoping for the best…fingers crossed.

Thanks for checking in, Ryan. I’ve been worrying about you all.
Keep us updated if you would and hear anything about Adam and Helen.
Tom

Heard from Ryan late last night that the fire had crossed CreekRd and was
burning down (up?) Encino Dr. Adam & Helen live right at the corner of
Encino and CreekRd, back up on the hillside amongst a lot of trees.
So definitely their home and wnry are at risk.

Ryan evacuated to SantaBarbara and will return to Ojai this morning, so should know
more later.

Dreadful situation out there. Tragedy about Mike’s home being lost.
Times like this make wine to seem pretty insignificant.

Tom

Unfortunately, it looks like the winds will stay up until sometime Friday. I noticed that the Getty museum & villa are closed for 2-3 days to avoid any smoke degradation to their works of art.

Gary,

And a fire broke out this morning in the Mulholland Pass, very close to the Getty. They closed down the 405 - not sure of the status now.

I saw that the Thomas fire grew about 10K acres overnight and is now at 65K - not sure which direction it is going as info is not that easy to get.

Sending positive vibes to those in harms way and those who have been affected already.

Looking really scary with no relief from the high winds through the weekend.

Absolutely heartbreaking for California to go thru this again. CNN coverage is frightening.

The fire in LA by the Getty Center off 405 looks absolutely worst case. Video I’m seeing is shocking. I hope people were able to evacuate.

It’s not the first thing we should think about but Moraga vineyard is right there, I can’t imagine how it could fare in such a situation. And the masterworks at the Getty. Goodness.

Looking at the livestream on social news, I see Moraga Lane has homes on fire in the new “Skirball” fire that began at 4:30am PST. From what I could see by the map, Moraga Winery itself is at significant risk. The fire looks right next to the property as we speak.

One thing that helped with the Napa/Sonoma fires, was that the winds died down for several days which helped get thing under control.

In SoCal, I just heard they’re calling or introducing a “purple flag warning” which indicates the worst of the worst. Fires burning, and they’re expecting triple-digit gusts over the next several days. It’s a good time, maybe, to take a vacation. There will be no getting out of the way of a 100mph firestorm. It’s heartbreaking.

BTW there is a thread on this fire in the Asylum as well: https://www.wineberserkers.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=5&t=146534

NBC LA is now reporting that the property is on fire:

And I just saw on Facebook that Jeff Leve has been evacuated from his home . . .

Interactive map from SF Chronicle. I’ll warn that, my experience with these maps in the North Bay fires is that you can’t take them too literally for the location of a fire perimeter may be off by as much as a kilometer or two.

Crazy stuff all over Southern Cal. Driving back from SB this morning, saw fires throughout the 150 Hwy. the Tolmach’s place hopefully is ok but was very close. Trying to get updates in town is like pulling teeth. We have major smoke and ash throughout the valley. We have a fire east of us that is a worry due to the upcoming winds tonight and tomorrow. We are in for much more craziness over the next 5 days as the winds just don’t want to calm down.
The fires did flirt with Krankle’s area but seem ok for now. Will keep you posted on any major change or word from Adam/Manfred estates. I’m heading back out for the night. Too dangerous for now.

Stay safe, my friend - and thanks for the updates.

Phil Carpenter’s uncle lives in Upper Ojai and his garage was burned but his house was saved - not so fortunate were the houses around him . . .

Cheers.