The Pickett Fire has burned more than 2,000 acres and prompted new evacuations as of Monday morning.
Cal Fire hand crews head to the fire line along the left flank of the Pickett Fire east of Calistoga, Thursday, August 21, 2025. The Pickett Fire, burning since Thursday afternoon near Calistoga, is the largest fire this year within the six counties covered by Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit.
The fire has burned 3,235 acres as of Friday afternoon and was 5% contained, according to fire officials. The wildfire erupted on the northern outskirts of Calistoga in steep, forested terrain, prompting evacuation orders affecting dozens of rural Napa County residents under triple-digit heat.No structure losses have been reported, and officials said there was a strong push to the east, moving away from the city said Division Chief Ryan Isham Friday.The fire has grown to 3,235 acres, according to the latest mapping by Cal Fire’s Intel aircraft. Containment remains at 5%.Although evacuation orders are still in place, Cal Fire Operations Chief Jeremy Pierce stressed in an afternoon briefing video that firefighters have a good handle on the fire and where it’s spreading, which is away from residential areas. “So far, although the fire was very aggressive yesterday and it put up a large column … today the fire is a much different fire, and we do have crews and aircraft in place. And we’re hoping to keep it in check during the heat of the day,” Pierce said. Pierce pointed out the that blaze is in the scar of the wind-driven 2020 Glass Fire, which impacted the communities of Angwin, Deer Park and their surroundings; however, he emphasized that this fire is different as it’s a slope- and fuels-driven fire, which fire crews can keep a better handle on.The fire is 5% contained as of about 1:30 p.m. said Napa County Deputy Fire Marshal Erick Hernandez. With the fire moving east towards Pope Valley and Aetna Springs — “we’re calling that the head of the fire,” he said — much of the firefighting effort is currently centered on boxing that area and keeping it west of those communities. Air and ground resources are heavily engaged there with Type 1 helicopters making water drops and engine strike teams and several dozers and hand crews in the area. “This is the biggest fire that we’ve had since 2020,” Hernandez said. But, he noted that there are currently plenty of resources. “One of the benefits with this fire is this is the only active fire in the north region,” he noted, and strike teams from all over the state have come to help. “We’ve deployed over 450 personnel, and if needed we can bring more.”The County of Sonoma issued a health advisory due to poor air quality caused by Pickett Fire. In a release, officials said “Areas of Sonoma County may experience poor air quality caused by the wildfire event in Napa County. People may experience adverse health effects from the smoke over Sonoma County and across the region.”The Pickett Fire is officially the largest this year within the territory covered by Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit, which also covers Colusa, Solano and Yolo counties. At 2,133 acres, five-times the size of the next largest incident: The Lake Fire, which was reported Aug. 3 and burned 401 acres near Clearlake in Lake County. On a statewide level, the Pickett Fire is the third-largest active fire within Cal Fire’s overall jurisdiction. According to records on the agency’s website, the Pickett Fire falls significantly short of the top two active fires:The Orleans Complex, which has burned 22,144 acres in Del Norte and Siskiyou counties. The Pickett Fire also ranks 15 in size among 414 incidents of 2025 listed on Cal Fire’s website. The Lake Fire is the 47th largest statewide. The Gifford Fire also takes the top spot on this ranking and is among seven fires that burned more than 10,000 acres.Napa County District 3 Supervisor Anne Cottrell said she’s been making efforts to check in with people in Angwin and the Aetna Springs area as the fire burns. Those in Aetna Springs can see the air attack on the fire as well as fire dozers, she said, and people in Angwin are seeing fire trucks and other grounded resources move through the area. “At this moment, things can change quickly, what I’m hearing from residents is confidence in those resources,” Cottrell said. Cottrell said she’s continuing to reach out to people around the area of the fire to make sure she understands what people are going through on the ground She added that she’s currently at the Calistoga Fairgrounds, a staging ground for Cal Fire, and on Thursday she visited the incident command site and walked up one of the fire lines. “It really strikes me how organized this event is, and what a good example of teamwork it is,” Cottrell said.Deanna Reister, a resident of Pope Valley, was packed and ready to evacuate to her adult daughter’s house in Colusa County if necessary, telling Press Democrat reporter Tarini Mehta that she’s evacuated about 10 times in the last decade. Reister commended the firefighters who are working to protect residents and stressed the need to mitigate fire risk in their area. “One would think that since we’ve been experiencing these large fires for the last 10 years that there would be even more done to mitigate the impact and spread these fires can do,” she said. “It seems to be a very recurrent situation every summer, and I really feel like our leadership in the area should step up to decide ways to harden the area since it is such a known high fire risk area,” she said.Compared to Thursday’s heat and dryness, Friday was looking better for firefighting conditions with no extreme wind direction changes expected, said Dalton Behringer, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. A deep marine layer is pushing further than usual and causing relative humidity in the 20 to 30% range, which is not critical but still dry enough to sustain a burn, Behringer said. He added that seasonal onshore wind is run-of-the-mill, not gusty and not likely to cause extreme fire behavior or a direction change.Temperatures may drop a few degrees Friday and Saturday, and by Sunday, meteorologists expect it to be five degrees cooler. There is a very low chance for dry lightning in Sonoma County late Saturday into Sunday morning due to monsoonal moisture, which would cause elevated showers with rain that would evaporate before hitting the ground, Behringer said. He said the chances for dry lightning are even smaller as you get away from the coast with even slimmer chances for Napa County, but still worth noting.The Bay Area Air Quality Management District has issued an air quality advisory for Sonoma, Napa and Solano counties due to the Pickett Fire as smoke from the blaze is expected to impact air quality. Pollution levels are not expected to exceed the national 24-hour health standard and a Spare the Air alert is not in effect.Napa County officials have issued new evacuation orders for zone NPA E115-, which includes the area north and south of Aetna Springs, east of Victoria Drive and Oat Hill Mine Trail and west of Summit Lake Drive. The county also issued new evacuation warnings for zones NPA E107 and POPE001B, which are south of James Creek Road. On Thursday they placed warnings for ANG-E001 and POP-E002B, which are still under affect. Both are directly east of other areas under evacuation warnings but neither covers Angwin, which sits in a narrow mountain valley to the southeast of the fire.Cal Fire hand crews head to the fire line along the left flank of the Pickett Fire east of Calistoga, Thursday, August 21, 2025. Cal Fire’s Howard Forest Helitack drops on the Pickett Fire east of Calistoga, Thursday, August 21, 2025. Eugene Guerrero with nCal Fire in Clearlake Oaks trudges up a steep incline with a hose bundles on the left flank of the Pickett Fire, Thursday, August 21, 2025. Cal Fire’s Howard Forest Helitack drops on the Pickett Fire east of Calistoga, Thursday, August 21, 2025. Cal Fire’s tanker 121 drops on the right flank of the Pickett Fire east of Calistoga, Thursday, August 21, 2025. Cal Fire’s Howard Forest Helitack drops on the Pickett Fire east of Calistoga, Thursday, August 21, 2025. The Pickett Fire burns in the hills east of Calistoga, as seen from downtown, on Thursday, Aug. 21, 2025. Cal Fire hand crews head to the fire line along the left flank of the Pickett Fire east of Calistoga, Thursday, August 21, 2025. The blaze remains at 2,133 acres and is 0% contained, according to Division Chief Ryan Isham in a Cal Fire LNU morning briefing. A strong wind has pushed the fire eastward, sending it from the Pickett Lane area down in the floor of Napa Valley into the Aetna Springs side of Pope Valley. There were over 350 total personnel working the fire overnight, and that figure is going up Friday, Division Chief Ryan Isham said in a video briefing. There are 75 engines, 8 hand crews, 15 dozers, 10 water tenders and numerous air tankers and helicopters assigned to Friday’s day shift, fire officials said. Total personnel is approximately 435. As temperatures warm up Friday, fire officials warned of increased fire activity within the perimeter, but stressed the increased overnight fire suppression.Officials said the fire was mapped the fire at 2,131 acres and remains 0% contained, Isham said. Overnight crews worked to establish primary control lines, as well as bulldoze contingency lines along Rattlesnake Ridge into Pope Valley. Contingency lines are a backup control line, in case primary lines fail and the fire jumps across, Isham explained. Firefighters took advantage of the increased overnight relative humidity, which slowed the fire’s spread, and continued to use aircraft to drop water on the fire, he added. The North Bay All-Hazard Incident Management Team has also been activated to assist Cal Fire LNU. It is a multi-agency team who respond to large, complex, all-hazard major incidents in the Northern California region.Harriette Cole: Our grandiose family reunion ended up offending a lot of peopleMajor alcohol distributor to leave California in SeptemberAsking Eric: These friends don't mix well with others but they pester us to be invitedWhy Burning Man is going for a different vibe this yearDefense contractor Northrop Grumman trims South Bay jobs, will shut San Jose complex
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