#staffreport

For our California Representative, Janet Ruiz, living in Napa County, the current California wildfires are all too real. Here is her report on the Rocky Fire:

On Wednesday around 5pm my daughter called and said a friend of hers in my neighborhood sent her a picture of smoke from a fire in the hills. I had been to the store only an hour before and not noticed. My husband and I went outside and, sure enough, smoke was billowing right behind the hills high into the sky. It was the beginning of the #Rocky Fire.

That night the sky glowed red and it was hard to go to sleep not knowing which way the wind would blow and what direction the fire would take. We packed our car with important papers, valuables, and medications so that we could leave in a hurry. We both checked all the important social media sites that were giving current information and finally drifted off to sleep.

Each day the fire grew and was minimally contained. Helicopters flew overhead constantly as the staging area was a few miles from our home. As the fire doubled and tripled in size so did the fire crews and resources to fight the fire, which was creating its own wind patterns and moving rapidly through the dry forested areas of rough terrain in high heat and drought conditions.

Fortunately, the fire stayed north of us and we didn't have to evacuate. We live in a Firewise community that had prepared by clearing defensible space well ahead of time. We were so glad to know what to do in an emergency and that alleviated some of the stress.