Some of you may have seen coverage on the news about the Valley Fire in north Napa County near Clear Lake. It started early yesterday and has now burned over 50,000 acres and is 0% (yes Zero percent) contained. In just 24 hours it has already burned over 1000 homes.
A friend of a friend posted this evacuation video from last night. Watch and imagine driving through your neighborhood and how scary this would have been. Crazy!
It has been a horrible fire season here in CA and the Clear Lake area has been hit especially hard. This fire has already done more structure damage than the other 3 major area fires combined. Yesterday we could hear sirens heading up valley non stop for several hours but didn't realize how bad things had gotten until seeing the news and Facebook this morning.
We've had a few friend loose homes and many friends of friend impacted. A good buddy lost his home along with a 66 Mustang fastback and 65 Fairlane but at least he and his family are all safe. Another was on vacation and wasn't able to get anything before loosing their home. We all know its just stuff and the stuff will be replaced but it sure sucks. Fortunately, there have been no deaths.
On a positive note, the community response has been amazing. Napa and the surrounding communities have really rallied together to offer support in the way of supplies and support for those displaced along with boarding for animals. In fact, the Red Cross has asked that no more supplies be delivered today because there was so much. Our kids were touched being able to help others in need and it was overwhelming for many having it be so close to home.
Friends posted these on Facebook today. There are so many others that were just amazing but very sad showing all the destruction. But, as with other events like this, they will stay strong, rebuild and life will eventually return to normal. Please pray for those effected.
Unfortunately, many of the large animals like horses & cows had to be left behind. Some, did what they had to do to save them and get them to safety.
Terrible Jeff! I was thinking of you watching the national news last night. And the vid ... not knowing if you're driving away from, or into the inferno?
My coworker had to evacuate her house in the Butte fire area over the weekend.
This valley fire is explosive! The first I heard on Saturday it was 400 acres.. by the time I saw it on the news after work... 10,000 acres.... bedtime 25k. yesterday 50k... today's update is 61k with 5% containment.
I'm 45 mins away from the fire and have ash falling at my house.
I doubt this would be the place people would look if they needed anything, but if someone needs help getting a trailer towed out or someplace to stash their car/truck/trailer I have some driveway space at my house and could set up some spots in gated storage on Travis AFB.
Damn Jeff, be safe out there. It's so sad the loss that's happening. I watched a report where it came up so fast this couple ended up letting their livestock and two horses go free and barely had to dodge the fire.
Thanks for the kind thoughts and prayers everyone. We are fine as we live in Napa but have friends and coworkers who live in the area. It's just crazy how aggressive the fire is. Everyone we know has friends or relatives that are impacted. Many of them have shares heartbreaking and inspirationals stories and photos, some are below.
The two Targets in Napa donated every tent and canopy they had along with pallets of water, sheet sets and pillow.
I also just saw a video on FB of a line of dozens of trucks with horse trailers waiting to haul livestock out.