KiwiZac wrote:
Oh jeez, Will, I'm so sorry to read that. Had I known I wouldn't have been pressing you so hard for photos.
There was a massive firestorm that broke out around the Napa and Sonoma Valleys last night about 9 pm. We had crazy high winds. The power went out for a minute or two, came back on. I walked out to close my front gate like I always do and could smell a grass fire. Then I turned around and saw 5 separate fires on the hillside above me. Knowing it could get ugly fast, I figured I should set up a defensible area with hoses laid out just in case burning embers came flying down... I didn't get burning embers, I got a whole arm of the fire. It covered about 3 miles in less than 45 minutes. A friend came over with his truck and I tossed as much stuff in as I could get, but totally failed to grab a few important things. I never actually heard an evacuation call. They may have done one, but never got up my long driveway. We looked at each other and said, time to go.
After I retreated to my friends place, I got a call from my boss saying the hills above my work were on fire and it would be a good idea for me to come in just in case. So, at 3am I picked up and drove out to work. As I crested a hill on the way there, holy hell... Inferno. I got into work (a high end hotel) and discovered that everyone was being evacuated. Once all the guests were out, it was the employee's next. We got everyone out aside from the GM and myself. He answered the front desk calls, and I did security rounds and kept an eye on the fires. This continued all day long today. Im happy to say the hotel suffered no damage other than broken tree limbs and other things that flew around with the high wind gusts. All in all there is a lot to clean up, lots of ash everywhere, but everything is safe even though we are technically still evacuated.
Will