Chapter 32: The Geyserville Fire (2)
TL: Hanguk
“Wildfire!”
At the sound of my Father shouting as he ran down the vineyard hill, the workers who had been working jumped in surprise.
“Everyone, move!”
The workers, who had been trained on how to move when a wildfire breaks out, all scattered and ran to the farm boundary. A firebreak had already been made, but it was to urgently deal with scattered vines or tree branches by human hands.
Since we had extended the firebreak to the nearby road with a tractor, for now there was a space of about 4 to 5 meters from the farm to the scrub on the mountain slope. Even so, I couldn’t take my eyes off the red glow that seemed to be coming closer little by little from far away.
"There's a wildfire? Should we turn on the sprinklers?"
Armando, who had run up before I knew it, asked. I shook my head.
“Not yet... the sprinklers are a last resort. We have to see if it’s definitely coming.”
The moment we activated the sprinklers, the moisture-stress management we’d maintained so far could collapse. If that happened, not only this year’s Table Grape but even the wine quality could end up with problems.
We had to wait as long as possible, and when I was sure the flames would cover the farm, we had to turn on the sprinklers to save the farm rather than the grape quality.
“That’s true. But... that’s northwest, right? Silveroak is in between too... If we’re lucky, it might not come as far as your farm. Maybe you don’t have to worry too much?”
From Napa, the northwest is the vast Sonoma County region. And since the Russian River Valley is part of it, I desperately hoped nothing would happen.
“You never know. How long will it take? To get here.”
“Wildfires this time of year move fast. If it’s quick, five or six hours? If it’s slow, maybe around ten hours?”
“... Tonight’s going to be a long one.”
I could feel sweat soaking into the hand gripping the tree.
***
At that time, Silver Oak Farm.
"Wildfire! There's a wildfire!"
Elowen Pike, who had been about to have a leisurely dinner, met his family’s eyes. Then, as if springing up, he rose to his feet and ran outside, turning his head in the direction the worker pointed, and far away, above the mountain ridge, a red glow was clearly seen surging up.
“Damn it...!”
Thousands of wildfires occur in California every year, so he didn't panic just because there was one, but that didn't mean he wasn't afraid when it became visible to his eyes.
Elaina, who had rushed out in shock and followed after him, was the same. At the red light visible in the distance, her face turned white. And the words of the Asian boy she had met at school rang in her head.
‘In dry weather, a wildfire can break out, so be careful.’
Remembering herself mocking those words, she bit her lip until it hurt.
Elowen shouted urgently.
“Call all the workers! We need to cut a firebreak first! Ask the cooperative, and go borrow a tractor right now!”
“Yes, sir.”
But not long after, a desperate answer came back.
“Boss, I checked, but they say all the tractors have been rented out! Other farms already took them all!”
“God damn it...!”
He hurriedly called a heavy equipment rental shop. But it was the same there, and he only heard the reply that there was no equipment left. A wildfire, unlike a building fire, doesn’t start in one spot and stay only there; it spreads out from the initial ignition point, so there is no choice but for there to be differences in response time.
“Haah...”
Everything went dark before his eyes. A firebreak absolutely required machinery. Even if they dug up soil with bare hands and cleared weeds, there could be no question it was clearly different from using machines. But he couldn’t just sit still.
“Bring shovels and axes! We have to do something! We just need to buy time until firefighting support arrives!”
A little later, as many as thirty workers came rushing in, holding old shovels and axes. Elowen himself also gripped an axe in his hand.
“I’ll pay triple wages today, so let’s give it everything we’ve got!”
At the mention of triple wages, the workers all gripped their tools tightly and steeled their resolve. From then on, the workers, including Elowen, all spread out along the farm boundary in the direction the flames were coming from and began making a firebreak.
“You, go and at least bring water for the workers. You’ll get hurt!”
When Elaina tried to join in and help, Elowen shouted. Upset, Elaina hurriedly ran off and carried water and snacks for the workers. The flames were still far away, but their hearts were nothing but anxious.
And so, the people cut down the dry grass and dug up the ground.
One hour, two hours... time passed in an instant, and before they knew it, seven hours had gone by. Elowen, whose hands had torn and were wrapped in bandages as he swung an axe, could feel a pungent, acrid smell.
“Let’s push a little harder!”
Elaina, watching her father shouting from afar, stamped her feet. Because now, even from far away, she could clearly see the flames approaching.
“Dad! Fall back now!”
“No! We still have time! What about CAL FIRE(California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection: a California state government wildfire response agency)?”
"They said they're fighting it on site!"
“Damn it...”
At that moment, a plane flew overhead and dropped water on the approaching wildfire in the distance. The sight of the massive water bomb stretching out in a long line and hitting the mountain range was spectacular.
“Huh?”
For a moment it seemed like the wildfire might be put out, but soon it was clear that only the part hit by the water bomb had calmed down, while the rest continued to blaze. Still, Elowen raised his axe and shouted.
“Everyone saw that, right? CAL FIRE sent a firefighting plane to support us! We can win!”
After encouraging the workers like that, Elowen and the workers kept chopping and digging. But the flames were far too fast, and before long a crimson wall of fire began to show itself in the distance. There were only about two hundred meters left to the farm.
Hot heat pressed against their faces, and every time the shovel scraped out dirt, red embers came fluttering in with a wind that sounded like it would tear their ears, touching the surrounding blades of grass. With a “poof", small flames sprang up, and the workers scrambled, stamping them out with their feet.
“No! Faster! Support over there! Widen the gap!”
Elowen’s voice cracked. But human strength wasn’t enough. The flames came running in like a monster.
“Damn it... damn it!”
“We have to withdraw!”
As if the flames were now almost right in front of them, fear filled the workers’ faces too. Some were already backing away with their equipment in their hands.
Elowen squeezed his eyes shut for a moment. The corners of his eyes grew hot and wet. But he had to decide.
“...All right. Everyone, fall back!”
In the end, the workers started running without looking back, and about ten minutes later, the flames wavered through the place where the firebreak hadn’t been fully cut and finally reached the edge of the farm.
Elowen turned on the sprinklers as if in a final struggle. With a creaking sound, streams of water burst from the metal pipes and sprayed over the vineyard. But in front of the flames it was nowhere near enough. It seemed to evaporate in the intense heat before the water could even reach.
Elaina covered her face with her hands and sobbed.
“My farm... our farm...”
The red flames ruthlessly swallowed the edge of the vineyard. The trunks of the grapevines that had been growing so well blackened and burned in an instant, and the fire leapt to the adjacent block in the blink of an eye. With snapping, cracking sounds, grape berries burst and spilled down. The smell was sweet, but at the same time it was a horrible smell of death.
Elowen and Elaina, having taken cover below the farm, stared blankly at the sight of the vineyard burning. A pillar of pitch-black smoke rose into the sky, and the red glow wavered like a sea of hellfire.
Elaina, clutching her face, said in a trembling voice.
“Dad... is it over now?”
Elowen couldn’t answer. His lips moved, but no voice came out. The scene spread before his eyes was far too obvious. Himself, who couldn’t even make a proper firebreak. The guilt of failing to fulfill the owner’s responsibility weighed heavily on his shoulders.
The roar of the flames coming from afar sounded like mockery. But he heavily shook his head.
“Not yet... not yet.”
No matter how enormous a wildfire is, a vineyard, by nature, is so rich in moisture that it can serve as a huge firebreak on its own. Sure enough, the flames that had seemed ready to swallow the farm boundary couldn’t expand their territory any farther past a certain line.
But the damage was already far too great.
"Let's go. We have insurance, so it's not like we can't recover from the damage."
Elowen, walking out while patting his daughter’s shoulder, hugged his wife who had been waiting for him in tears, and then slowly watched the flames die down with a complicated look in his eyes.
***
Staring closely at the flames slowly approaching from far away, I shouted to Dad.
“The flames have weakened a lot!”
“Then the sprinklers...?”
“Not yet, not yet...”
At that moment, a firefighting plane flew over our heads once again, and immediately a water bomb dropped down. The flames, which had already been losing momentum little by little, visibly shrank back again.
Dad, who filled a bucket with water and flung it out beyond the firebreak, said with a somewhat relieved expression.
“Looks like it’s getting under control, doesn’t it? That over there is the Silveroak farm, right? Is it because of that?”
“Probably... Anyway, I hope it ends like this. Please check if any embers fell on the farm.”
No matter how much the flames had started to die down, we couldn’t let our guard down because we never knew when they might catch the wind and surge again.
After watching for about an hour like that, the flames that had gradually come closer reached the farm boundary, but thanks to how wide we’d cut the firebreak, they couldn’t cross the line. Then, after several water bombs, the wildfire finally lost its initial force and the red glow faded.
“It’s over.”
Armando, who patted my shoulder, gave me a look that said I’d worked hard.
“Luckily... we got lucky. Even if we made a firebreak, if the flames hadn’t weakened up front, it could’ve been tough.”
As I said that, I spoke to Dad, who was coming up just then.
“The grapes along the farm boundary need to be washed.”
“Yeah?”
“They got hit with smoke, so if we leave them like this, they’ll take on a smoke aroma. There’ll be some issues with quality, but we can’t help it.”
“Whew, can’t be helped. Ah, and I called Hart Farm in the Russian River Valley. Fortunately, they said there’s no damage to the farm at all.”
“Really? That’s a relief.”
“Yeah, they say it broke out north of Geyserville, but they were worried about us instead.”
“Yes, I understand. Let’s go check tomorrow.”
I started washing the smoke-exposed grapes with the workers, and before long, I watched the Napa Fire Department wildfire response team completely finish clearing the site.
Then, something suddenly occurred to me, and I went to the fire commander and asked.
“Was there a lot of damage from this wildfire?”
“It wasn’t extremely severe, but as far as I know, quite a lot of vineyards had damage, even if only a little. Your farm had a very well-cut firebreak, so there wasn’t major damage. Ah, and up there, the Silveroak farm lost a quarter of it.”
“Oh dear... tsk tsk tsk...” After clicking my tongue, I looked toward where Silver Oak Farm was and murmured.
"It's unfortunate, but... that's what farming is."
*****
Author's Note:
I searched for images of vineyards that suffered wildfire damage.
They say there’s been a major wildfire near Napa and Sonoma right now. This is today’s image. (TL: On the day this chapter was released i.e., 23/08/2025)
