Toll Fire near Calistoga 20% contained, no growth overnight

Two evacuees from the Toll Fire, which erupted Tuesday morning less than 3 miles from downtown Calistoga, had found shelter in the city’s Community Center, and by 1:30 p.m. were listening to Mayor Donald Williams play a piano.

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Mandatory evacuation orders are in effect after a wildfire started just before 10 a.m. on a road dotted with residences and wineries north of Calistoga.

Strains of “Amazing Grace” and “The Sound of Silence” filled the hall while, in the forested area north of the city between 10 a.m. and noon, more than 300 firefighters, three helicopters, 20 engines, two bulldozers and seven water tenders battled the blaze, which officials said was about 50 acres.

The fire was 20% contained by Wednesday morning and hadn’t grown.

Officials said forward progress of the fire had been stopped and crews would remain on scene throughout the night constructing and fortifying control lines and mopping up.

The cause of the fire is under investigation, officials said.

The Toll Fire started along Old Lawley Toll Road, a historical route that once served as a toll road in the area and is now dotted with wineries and about 40 to 50 homes, Napa County Sheriff Oscar Ortiz told The Press Democrat.

Pushed south by 15-20 mph winds, the fire forced mandatory evacuations just before 11:30 a.m.

About 114 people were affected between two zones directly north of Calistoga and were ordered to evacuate, while two other zones were placed on evacuation alert, Cal Fire Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit spokesperson Jason Clay said.

The community center had also been designated a cooling center before the fire began. A third person there Tuesday, who also listened as Williams played the keyboard, was there as temperatures soared above 100 degrees, making the day a tinderbox.

First evacuations

Sam and Dee Lovold arrived at the community center at about 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.

They said they evacuated from their home off Highway 29, or Lake County Highway, after watching the early stages of the blaze.

They brought overnight bags and, according to Dee Lovold, were planning to stick around in Calistoga until evacuations were lifted.

“We commend the response to the fire,” Sam Lovold said. “They were really fast.” He added that it was the first time the couple had evacuated their home due to a vegetation fire.

Williams said he couldn’t recall the center being used for evacuations before, but that the Napa County Fairgrounds has been used in big fires in past years. He said the community center was likely chosen because of the relatively low number of evacuees this time around.

The Toll Fire broke out not quite a month after a 60-acre blaze — signaling the start of fire season — ignited northeast of St. Helena in the scar of the devastating Glass Fire, which in 2020 skipped across Napa Valley and raced over the Mayacamas Mountains into Santa Rosa’s outskirts.

The 67,484-acre Glass Fire destroyed 642 homes in Napa and Sonoma counties, and damaged or destroyed nearly 30 winery properties in the middle of harvest season.

In Sonoma County, the first major wildfire of the season, the Point Fire, blew up June 16 on the east side of Lake Sonoma.

It spread to 1,207 acres before it was contained. It destroyed 10 structures, three of them homes, and damaged two. More than 300 residents were ordered to evacuate and more than 400 more received an evacuation warning in that blaze.

Shortly after 5 p.m. Tuesday, the mandatory evacuation orders in the Toll Fire were downgraded to a warning. In addition, the north entrance to Old Lawley Toll Road was reopened and residents were allowed to return home, the Napa County Sheriff’s Office said.

You can reach Staff Writer Edward Booth at 707-521-5281 or edward.booth@pressdemocrat.com. You can reach Staff Writer Jeremy Hay at 707-387-2960 or jeremy.hay@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @jeremyhay.

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