It’s back to normal for most West Dry Creek residents, now back home after Point Fire evacuation

The Point Fire had approached the main house and a cluster of winemaking facilities at Raymond Burr Vineyards on three sides, fueled by a heavily wooded parcel just north of the property and an expanse of woods farther up slope to the west, where a neighboring home had been surrounded by flames.

The ground is charred in several areas along the drive that runs through the property off West Dry Creek Road, past an assortment of greenhouses, the tasting room, the late “Perry Mason” actor’s former home and a fenced, concrete pad supporting steel wine vats.

On the north side, the fire melted plastic lines from full water tanks connected, ironically, to a fire hose spigot near the wine production area, leaving the spigot unusable. The foliage on a fruit tree at the edge of an orchard on the structures’ south side shows how close the fire came there.

Penned sheep on Thursday lay nearby on ground burned the same dark color as their brown winter wool.

But from the vineyard’s current owner, Don Johnson, and his fiancee, “Boss Lady” Sherie LeBlanc, there was nothing but smiles during a visit to the area, where they gamely showed a reporter around the premises.

Though the 1,207-acre fire claimed three homes and several outbuildings within a half-mile, including two of their sheds, the house and critical structures at Raymond Burr Vineyards were left unscathed.

LeBlanc credits fire crews who rushed to protect homes along the edge of the valley and below Bradford Mountain, where flames traveling along the ridgetop burned through timber at high heat and spread down drainages toward Dry Creek and any building in the way.

“If the fire department wasn’t here, we wouldn’t be here,” LeBlanc said.

“Cal Fire was so impressive. They came here with an army. They came here with crew after crew. They stayed the night,” she said. “We appreciate everything they’ve done.”

The Point Fire was 75% contained Friday. It had not grown appreciably since Monday morning, a day after it erupted off Stewarts Point-Skaggs Spring Road near Lake Sonoma amid high winds that drove the fire rapidly southeast along the ridgeline above the Dry Creek Valley.

With past wildfires in mind ― notably the 2020 Walbridge, which did its worst in the rugged hills and drainages around the Mill Creek watershed south of the Point Fire evacuation zone ― Cal Fire officials quickly put out an “all call” notice just more than four hours after the Point Fire started Sunday afternoon.

All available crews from Sonoma County fire agencies were requested to meet at Yoakim Bridge Road — one of the few roads that cut across the lush valley to connect West Dry Creek and Dry Creek roads. There they would help defend homes and wineries threatened along the famed valley’s western edge.

Twenty-eight local engines responded immediately, and several more arrived later that evening, mixing with the growing ranks of Cal Fire crews, engine and aircraft assigned to the expanding fire, raising the total number of personnel to 400 by early Monday. Local agencies also sent three water tenders and 10 chief officers in response to the “all call” dispatch.

Cal Fire Division Chief Ben Nicholls, who was incident commander that first day, figured about 250 homes and other structures “lay out in front of that body of fire” Sunday afternoon. “Obviously, it’s easier to defend if crews are there before the flaming front arrives.”

Once on scene, firefighters could prepare for the fire’s arrival by moving flammable materials away from structures, staging ladders and readying to hose down structures and flames once it became necessary.

The idea, said Cal Fire Unit Chief Mike Marcucci, who heads up Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Napa-Lake Unit, which includes Colusa, Solano and Yolo counties, “is to overwhelm the structure threat with resources to be able to combat the fire.”

Local crews filled the gap while Cal Fire engines from around the state set out to join the fight, even as winds spread the fire 3 1/2 miles from its origin in less than a day.

It helped, Nicholls said, that for the first time in the region, two Chinook helicopters equipped to work by night were available to make water drops where needed below the smoke plume that lay across the top of the fire, preventing fixed-wing planes from dropping retardant.

But because the structures in that area are so spread apart, many of them tucked up in the trees above West Dry Creek Road, grounds crews “had to pretty much jigsaw through that area, and that takes time,” Marcucci said.

Worse, an expanding red flag warning prompted by low forecast humidity levels and gusting winds was in store, he said, “and everything was telling us that fire was going to double in size on Monday.”

But fortune turned, and the afternoon winds did not develop as feared. “Had we not had that wind subside, we would have had another 3 1/2 miles” of fire growth, Marcucci said.

“We were worried about Geyserville and Healdsburg, in all honesty. We were truly planning for the worst and hoping for the best,” he said.

Improved conditions and the labor of well more than 1,000 firefighters over the next few days allowed authorities to lift the evacuation order for the area Wednesday evening. About 328 residents had been affected, though not everyone abided by the order.

Johnson himself was in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, when he and LeBlanc received notification of a fire and evacuation order but made their way back to Sonoma County the next day. Johnson managed to monitor the fire and his livestock over the following few days, as helicopters buzzed overhead and hand crews hiked deep into the woods.

“Old-timers” Lou and Susan Preston, who live just up the road, did not stay. Instead they gathered a few belongings ― financial documents, Lou Preston said, a pair of socks ― after smelling smoke as they prepared to entertain friends and then receiving an evacuation notice.

The two residents of West Dry Creek Road, where they own Preston Farm and Winery, had employees check on the 5-acre produce garden when it was safe, but returned home themselves once the evacuation lifted. They found everything in place and perfectly normal.

“That would have been scary to be here,” Susan Preston said.

Elmer Ortega came home to find the property where he lives and works turned hot pink from fire retardant, “like a Barbie house.”

Retardant coated the stone wall around a small garden pond above where he and his family live, the gravel around the garden beds, even the leaves of plants growing there.

He was blasting the wooden trellis in the garden above his home with a hose, describing the many lengths of fire hose he’d seen firefighters hauling back from the woods.

“These guys got lucky,” he said of the property’s owners, fire engines had been stationed at the house during the fire.

Down the road, Isabelle Adams had just returned home Thursday, though her husband had returned the night before and they knew all was well.

“The fire was literally behind that house right there,” when three generations of her family evacuated during a Father’s Day gathering Sunday, Adams said, pointing to a neighboring house.

Three granddaughters skittered about as she expressed her gratitude to firefighters who were planning to continue patrolling the area through the weekend in what Cal Fire officials describe as a “seek and destroy” mission to locate any hot spots.

Cal Fire Capt. Forrest Martin and the folks on his engine were among several crews rolling through the area Thursday and stopping at different places where they knew fire had come close to ensure nothing had flared up.

“Our assignment with the repopulation is to put in work where there is work,” but little had been needed, he said.

But a drive along West Dry Creek Road yielded little evidence that fire had threatened the entire area mere days earlier.

At the top of the road, Bella Vineyards and Wine Caves hosted a large party of tasters who chatted and relaxed beneath the trees.

Two other visitors sat in Adirondack chairs looking out over Dry Creek Valley ― verdant with the foliage of grape vines and summer greenery.

“We got very lucky up in here,” a worker said.

You can reach Staff Writer Mary Callahan (she/her) at 707-521-5249 or mary.callahan@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @MaryCallahanB.