Monday, October 8th
I’m sound asleep and my phone rings at exactly 3:00 am Monday from the kitchen where it is plugged in. You know that horrible feeling many of us have when the phone rings in the middle of the night – a family member must have a problem. A serious problem.
I miss the call before it goes into voicemail. The call is from Elias, my friend and trainer. Hum, I think, this must be a butt dial and I go back to bed. There is a faint smell of smoke in the air, but I’m half asleep and don’t think anything of it. The phone rings again at 3:36am and I miss it again. It’s Elias again. But we’re not training until 7am I think. Something doesn’t make sense so I decide to call him back. He calmly tells me to look out the window and turn on Channel 7. Ellen is now up and we quickly walk to the front door. Upon opening the door a rush of smoke enters the house, and the sky is glowing red in multiple directions. The fires don’t seem too close but who really knows. We race to the TV.
Image: Burning hills in Sonoma near vineyards from the Partrick fire. The entire sky was orange and gray.
It’s fairly early on in the disaster and we are glued standing in front of the TV. They are evacuating and trying to save the large Kaiser Permanente hospital in Santa Rosa. The parking lot is on fire and there are fires all around it, bushes, trees, etc. It looks like war, or what I envision war to look like. It dawns on me that the hospital is right on the 101 Freeway. How on earth can there be a problem here I think? The broadcast bounces around to Calistoga, Atlas Peak, and the Coffey Park neighborhood where 400+ homes have been incinerated in about 90 minutes. I Google where this location is. Exactly 5 blocks from the business park where we make our wine. Ouch.
My nervousness moves quickly to panic. In addition to not knowing what the hell was going on anywhere, I think about the red glow in the sky ringing my house and the rumors of devastation in Glen Ellen and Kenwood. The only thing I know for sure is that my own house and neighborhood are not burning at the moment. My mind turns to Sojourn and the 200 tons of fruit we have already brought in this year. What are the ramifications for Sojourn if there was a total wine loss? What are the details of my insurance policy again, you know the one I signed up for 9 years ago? I have no idea. What would happen if we had a total wine loss and had to skip a vintage? What about our employees? It’s reported that there are no fatalities yet, but this seems very unlikely. Did anyone die in the Coffey Park fire? It’s hard to fathom that someone didn’t perish …
Image: The Hilton Sonoma Wine Country in Santa Rosa near Coffey Park was entirely engulfed in flames early Monday morning. The hotel was completely destroyed. Source: ABC7.
I call Erich Bradley (Sojourn Winemaker), he’s up and online. He tells me to get a Twitter account asap because the fires are very fast moving and that’s the best source of information. We chat about our winery location relative to the fires. He’s nervous too. The winds start to die down at 6am and this is comforting. Sort of I guess.
We spend most of Monday glued to the TV, Internet and our phones. What is unfolding is staggering. After the shock and awe firestorm on Sunday night/Monday early am the fires are now more like a slow moving train wreck. So what should I be doing now? Contact all employees, make sure they are safe. Check. Tell family we are Ok for now. Check. Go get breathing masks because of the heavy smoke from the fire. Check.
Image: Fires consumed much of the hills around Gundlach Bundschu winery in Southern Sonoma County. The winery remarkably is ok.
Click here to read Sonoma & Napa Firestorms: A First Person Account, Day 2