Updated August 20 at 9:39 a.m.
Ray Fields was at work in Napa when his battalion chief called him at 2 a.m. and said there was a fire coming over the ridge toward his house. He’s a firefighter for the city of Napa — 18 years in the making — and lives on one of the first little hills of the coastal range northwest of Vacaville.
“I went to bed with no worries,” he said. “I was on the fires in 2017 in Napa, I had no idea the fire would get this far overnight.”
Fields says he was surprised that the lightning sparked blaze got so close so fast — he blames stretched-thin resources because of the more than 300 fires burning statewide.
“Crews can’t be everywhere at the same time, there’s just too many fires started at the same time by lightning strikes,” he said.
He evacuated his family in their fifth wheel and his friends helped him clear weeds. When the fire got within 100 feet of his house, they fought it with garden hoses.
“Firefighting is always a little bit different when it’s your house and your kids are screaming at you before they leave that they don’t want their house to burn down,” he said.
His home is standing, but others weren’t so fortunate just miles away.
City of Napa firefighter Ray Fields successfully defended his home against the LNU Lightning Complex fires with the help of some friends.Andrew Nixon / CapRadio
The LNU Lightning Complex fires — including the Hennessey, Aetna and Walbridge Fires — spread quickly toward Vacaville overnight Wednesday, prompting urgent evacuations in the area Wednesday morning. Parts of Fairfield and Yolo County also received evacuation notices later in the day. As of Thursday many are still evacuated and new evacuations are also in place.
The fast-moving fires, which started in Napa County Monday, are now burning in Sonoma, Solano, Yolo and Lake counties as well. The fires have burned 131,000 acres so far and are 0% contained.
At least 105 structures had been destroyed and 70 damaged, while thousands more were threatened by the fires as of 9 a.m. Thursday, according to Cal Fire.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday that the state is currently battling 367 known fires, and that there have been 10,849 lightning strikes in the last few days during the heatwave. Newsom declared a state of emergency over the fires on Tuesday.
Smoke from the fires has spread through Northern California, prompting an air quality alert in Yolo and Solano counties.
Sherree Brose has lived west of Vacaville for 25 years. After she evacuated off her small acreage, with a home built in 1846, her son-in-law went back in with a water truck as the flames surrounded her property.
“My house is on the other side of that smoke and … he couldn’t save my pump house, but he saved my old shed and house,” the retiree said as she fought through tears. “It was fast and furious. I know that other people in the area, their houses are gone.”
She says her home has survived three fires, but what’s different this time is that there was no visible aircraft fighting the fire.
“I haven’t seen one single plane,” she said. “I’ve seen fire trucks, but if it wasn’t for my son-in law my house wouldn’t be there.”
The entire area is enshrouded in ash and smoke. It reaches all the way across the valley with other fires burning as well, like the Jones Fire near Nevada City.
When Jim and Maryann Moran left the home they built 17 years ago in the fright of night as their power went out they wondered if the tan house would still be there in the morning. Today they were relieved.
“Where my house is has burned twice, but not while my house was there,” Jim Moran said.
But his wife, Maryann, says fires don’t usually make it over the ridge near their home.
“They’ve always put fire retardant down, but there were helicopters this time and there was a lot of ash,” she said.
All that ash made it hard for Steve and Cherrie Brown to breathe. They live with two dogs, a cat, five chickens and a bunch of fish (which they left on the ranch) near Allendale north of Vacaville.
“The power went off and we looked out the front and you could see the glow on the hill,” Cherrie Brown said. “It wasn’t too long before the sheriff came along and said, ‘Get the hell out.’”
So far, their home is still standing, but they just live a fields length away from where the foothills begin.
“We built our house ourselves from the ground up and losing it would be really bad, but we’re safe and our dogs are out,” she said of her two panting Newfoundlands.
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