Oregon Blaze Eases as Napa’s Vineyards Breathe a Sigh of Relief

In central Oregon, a wildfire that has already destroyed four homes showed its first signs of slowing on Monday, offering a glimmer of hope to exhausted crews and anxious residents. The Flat Fire, which has scorched roughly 88 square kilometers of rugged terrain in Deschutes and Jefferson counties since igniting late Thursday, benefited from a welcome change in weather. Light rain and cooler temperatures lifted humidity, helping 1,200 firefighters strengthen protective lines around the blaze.

Travis Medema, the state’s chief deputy fire marshal, told a community meeting in Sisters that, for the first time in days, the fire was “beginning to stabilize.” Even so, containment remains at just five percent, and a heat advisory through Wednesday coupled with the threat of thunderstorms and erratic winds could still test the fragile progress. Evacuation orders that once covered more than 4,000 homes have been eased in some areas, but many remain on alert.

Farther south, in Northern California’s famed wine country, the Pickett Fire has burned about 26 square kilometers of remote Napa County. As of Monday, it was 15 percent contained. The flames came perilously close to the home and vineyards of Jayson Woodbridge of Hundred Acre wines, who described watching fire race along nearby slopes in a “hot funnel of air” that evaporated water as quickly as it left the hose. Bulldozers, air tankers, and water-dropping helicopters ultimately kept the fire confined to surrounding canyons.

With harvest just weeks away, Woodbridge credits a stroke of luck a westerly wind for sparing his grapes from smoke damage, a fate that devastated much of the region’s crop during the 2020 Glass Fire. Napa Valley Vintners confirmed there have been no reports of vineyard losses from the current blaze.

For now, both regions remain in a tense balance Oregon’s high desert and California’s rolling vine-covered hills united by the same fragile hope: that shifting winds and rising heat will not undo the hard-won gains of the past 48 hours.