Residents in LA reported that Google Maps was displaying satellite images of the Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighborhoods prior to the devastating 2025 wildfires, leading some to believe it was motivated by the upcoming mayoral election.

Over the past few days, some Google Maps users have reported that the app was displaying older satellite images of Los Angeles before parts of it were destroyed by the Palisades and Eaton fires in January 2025, as the California Post reports.

Meanwhile, other users still see the most recent images featuring the devastated, burned-out Altadena and Pacific Palisades neighborhoods, which is what showed up for SFist.

Users in online forums like Y Combinator speculated about whether it was an attempt by Mayor Karen Bass to gloss over issues surrounding the fires ahead of the heated mayoral election. Per the Post, one of Bass’s challengers, Spencer Pratt, was motivated to run against Bass after his home burned down in the Palisades Fire.

Google explained in a statement on social media Monday that old images were being displayed due to a technical issue stemming from a recent update, and the company is working to fix the glitch.

Related: Google Maps Lists an Oakland Homeless Encampment as “Homeless Encampment,” Hilarity Ensues

Image: Hunter Weiss/X

• Amy Hillyard, the local coffee shop owner who went missing from her home in Oakland on March 25, left the house without her phone, keys or important medication, and the front door was left wide open. She was reportedly dealing with grief over the deaths of a close friend and one of the family dogs, in addition to the stress of being a caregiver for family members. [Chronicle]
• A new bill that’s up for a vote with California lawmakers could lower residents’ PG&E bills by 30% while also ensuring wildfire survivors received their full settlements. [KGO]

• More signature collectors were spotted paying people on the street to sign petitions relating to the billionaire tax, except now they're wearing masks. [New York Times]

National:

• In an attempt to take the attention off the Melania drama, Trump posted a “snuff” video Thursday showing the graphic surveillance footage of an undocumented man from Haiti allegedly bludgeoning a gas station clerk in Florida. [Guardian]
• Meanwhile, Iran has been posting AI-generated Leggo-themed propaganda videos about the US that are pretty spot on. [Forbes]
• A sheriff’s deputy in Southern California was caught perusing dating apps during a standoff with an armed suspect. [CBS News]

Video of the Day:

South Korea must’ve gotten wind of SF’s legendary Hunky Jesus Contest and said, “Hold my beer.” Maybe “Seoul Jesus” can make his way to Dolores Park next year — just need to figure out where to put the gigantic crane.

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

The Sacramento Bee, like many publications across the country, has been experimenting with AI-generated content for its website, particularly in the realm of real-time wildfire and earthquake updates. But it seems like they may need more human eyes on this stuff.

In the last few days, the Sacramento Bee's website has published several false earthquake reports — albeit falsely generated by the US Geological Survey's earthquake notification system, but quickly retracted — and one false wildfire report.

The earthquake reports on Monday evening are attributed to the McClatchy Company's CA Earthquake Bot — the one linked above reported on an offshore earthquake west of Bonny Doon, in Santa Cruz County, with a preliminary magnitude of 3.7.

This was one of several false alarms registered by the USGS's automated earthquake notification system in Northern California Monday night, as we previously reported, and the USGS quickly noted the errors and removed the erroneous earthquake notices from its website. The Sacramento Bee post about the earthquake, along with several others like this 3.2M quake near Shaver Lake that did not happen, remain live on the site.

A correction does appear on this post from Wednesday afternoon, regarding a Ventura County wildfire that turned out not to exist. That story was attributed to "CA Wildfire Bot."

"A previously published report about a wildfire in Ventura County was published in error and has been removed. No such fire existed," the post now reads. "The report was generated due to a system error from data provided by the National Interagency Fire Center. We apologize for the error."

That automated error appears to have mistaken a 500-acre wildfire in Valencia County, New Mexico, called the United Fire, which broke out Wednesday, for a fire in SoCal's Ventura County. And Cal Fire quickly saw the erroneous report, and notified the Sacramento Bee.

The CA Wildfire Bot and Earthquake Bot, by the way, are now producing dozens of posts per day, one for every wildfire or earthquake notification, the former based on Cal Fire or INCI web data — and/or the NIFC, which appears to be blamed for the erroneous post.

The earthquake posts linked to retracted USGS posts continue to link to pages on the USGS site that have since been deleted.

These AI-generated posts at the Sacramento Bee previously had a joke-y disclaimer on them saying, "This article was generated by the CA Earthquake Bot, software that analyzes structured information, such as data, and applies it to articles based on templates created by journalists in the newsroom. No human journalist was harmed in this experiment."

But that disclaimer has now changed to say, "The creation of this content included the use of AI based on templates created, reviewed and edited by journalists in the newsroom."

Photo by Fachy Marin

• On the heels of the historic teachers’ strike, the San Francisco Unified School District is expected to issue preliminary layoff notices for 42 educators and other staff, a decrease from 298 last year. [Chronicle]
• A family-owned educational toy company in Illinois named Learning Resources was the lead plaintiff in the court case that took down Trump’s tariffs in the Supreme Court Friday, which he called “unpatriotic.” [CBC]
• A new proposed state Senate bill would require insurance companies to guarantee coverage for homes that meet wildfire safety standards, and if they don’t comply, they’ll be removed from the state’s home and auto market for five years. [Southern California News Group]
• A celebration of life for Betty Reid Soskin, the oldest National Park Service ranger who died in December at 104, is scheduled to take place March 1 at Oakland’s Kaiser Center for the Arts. [Oaklandside]

Image: Leanne Maxwell/SFist

On October 8, 2017, wildfires ignited in multiple spots in Napa and Sonoma counties, seemingly all at once, amid a dangerous windstorm that helped the fires to spread rapidly and disastrously, especially for two residential neighborhoods in Santa Rosa.

This week marks the eighth anniversary of those fires — known as the Tubbs Fire (Santa Rosa), the Nuns Fire (Glen Ellen/Sonoma), the Pocket Fire (Cloverdale), and the Atlas Fire (Napa), with the three Sonoma fires becoming known as the 2017 Sonoma Complex fires, and the whole, including other NorCal fires, dubbed the October 2017 Fire Siege. While homes were lost in all of the blazes, the Tubbs Fire was by far the most destructive and deadly, leaving 22 people dead and destroying more than 5,600 structures.

The fires reached Santa Rosa and Glen Ellen, doing the greatest amount of damage, eight years ago today, on the morning of October 9.

The destruction included the entire neighhorhood of Coffey Park, and part of the neighborhood of Fountaingrove. While Coffey Park is mostly rebuilt, save for a few lots where owners likely didn't have insurance, or enough insurance, there is still fairly constant construction in Fountaingrove, eight years on, as KPIX reports this week.

Similarly, in Glen Ellen, you can still see the scars of the Nuns Fire, with hillsides covered in dead but still standing trees, and a handful of properties along Trinity Road and elsewhere that have not been rebuilt — some with concrete foundations that still remain as reminders.

Many of the homes that have been rebuilt across Sonoma County are more fire-resistant than the ones that were destroyed — though a blaze that arrived with the force and speed of the Tubbs Fire, fueled by fierce Diablo winds that were clocked at up to 60 miles per hour, would likely do similar amount of damage if it happened again.

A subsequent post-fire report on vegetation and resilency in the county discussed how similar firestorms had happened in the same or similar footprints of these fires, on an eerily regular schedule of every 40 to 50 years. Previous firestorms around the same point in fire season had burned similar areas of Santa Rosa and Nuns Canyon/Glen Ellen in 1964 — at a time when they were considerably less populated, though non un-populated — and also in 1923, and in 1870.

The September 17, 1923 event coincided with a historically disastrous fire that destroyed over 640 structures in Berkeley on the same day, and another 1000 structures in other parts of the Bay Area.

Since the 2017 fires, parts of Santa Rosa, Kenwood, Calistoga, and St. Helena were destroyed in the Glass Fire three years later, in September 2020. And the Pickett Fire this past August caused minimal structure damage in part because it was contained within much of the fire scar left by the Glass Fire.

While the cause of the Tubbs Fire was determined to be sparks from a private electrical system on a property in Calistoga, the cause of the Nuns Fire involved PG&E equipment — specifically a tree falling onto some power lines. Victims with lost property in the Nuns Fire became eligible for settlement funds after PG&E's 2020 bankruptcy — as part of a $13.5 billion trust the utility established which also went to the thousands of victims of the 2018 Camp Fire one year later.

A new documentary short about the Tubbs Fire, from the perspective of a Chronicle photographer, is titled "Weathering the Storm: California Tubbs Fire." It can viewed on the Hearst-owned video app Very Local.

As photographer Gabrielle Lurie recounts, "My first impressions of Coffey Park were almost that something unnatural had happened, an entire neighborhood decimated."

Santa Rosa resident Nicole Veum also appears in the doc, talking about being in labor while having her first child when the Santa Rosa hospital she was in had to be evacuated.

"I didn’t think a city like that could catch on fire," Veum says.

Federal authorities arrested a suspect they believe is responsible for sparking the devastating Palisades Fire in January in Los Angeles.

29-year-old Jonathan Rinderknecht of Melburne, Florida has been taken into federal custody for "maliciously starting" the Palisades Fire, federal officials announced Wednesday.

All of te evidence against Rinderknecht was not made public, but investigators say they used witness statements, video surveillance, cellphone data, and fire analysis to link Rinderknecht to the blaze. And the federal complaint details Rinderknecht's movements on New Year's Eve, when the initial fire that's believed to have led to the larger conflagration days later began.

As the New York Times reports, Rinderknecht was a former residents of Pacific Palisades, and was working as an Uber driver. He had dropped off a passenger in the area on December 31. He then drove to a trailhead called Skull Rock.

He then parked, tried to call a former friend and walked up the trail taking videos with an iPhone and listening on YouTube to a French rap video featuring a character setting things on fire. Then, federal authorities alleged, he set a fire himself with an open flame and called 911 to report it, but did not initially get through because he could not get cell service.

Investigators say that Rinderknecht then fled the scene in his car, but returned, following fire engines to the trail, and hiking back up to record video of the flames.

That initial brush fire ultimately grew to eight acres, and was called the Lachman Fire — and it was initially rumored to have been sparked by fireworks being set off in the area. Embers from the fire were reignated on January 7, according to investigators, creating what would become the Palisades Fire — which killed 12 people and destroyed over 6,800 structures.

In a statement, Bill Essayli, the acting United States attorney in Los Angeles, said, "A single person’s recklessness caused one of the worst fires Los Angeles has ever seen." Essayli added, "While we cannot undo the damage and destruction that was done, we hope his arrest and the charges against him bring some measure of justice to the victims of this horrific tragedy."

As the LA Times reports, among the evidence collected by invesitgators was an image that Rinderknecht allegedly used ChatGPT to generate depicting a city on fire. He also allegedly asked ChatGPT, while calling 911, "Are you at fault if a fire is lift because of your cigarettes?"

Rinderknecht had been living in the Palisades last year, but after the fire he reportedly moved to Florida. It seems as though he was known to authorities from the beginning, and he's alleged to have made false statements when questioned.

Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass issued a statement about the arrest, saying, "More than 9 months ago, our city faced one of the most devastating periods our region had ever seen. Lives were tragically lost. Thousands of homes were destroyed. Our heroic firefighters fought the blaze valiantly with no rest. Each day that families are displaced is a day too long and as we are working tirelessly to bring Angelenos home, we are also working towards closure and towards justice – and today is a step forward in that process."

The Pickett Fire in Napa County, which is still smoldering and stands at 93% contained after burning over 6,800 acres, may have been sparked on August 21 by discarded ashes from curing a new outdoor fireplace. But that has not been confirmed.

Local PR guy Sam Singer represents Hundred Acre Wine Group, and given Singer's experience with crisis PR in the Bay Area, that seems to be fortuitous after the winery has been implicated as a possible source for the cause of the Pickett Fire. NBC Bay Area first reported last week that Cal Fire investigators suspected that a contract worker at a local winery had improperly disposed of some ashes that he thought were safely cooled around the time that the blaze began on August 21.

At the time, via Singer, the station learned that the worker may have put the discarded ashes "on a pile of flammable material." And early radio dispatch traffic mentioned an "escaped controlled burn" as a possible cause of the fire.

A subsequent report suggested that an unsanctioned wedding had been planned at the winery that weekend, which was then moved to St. Helena when the fire began, and Singer characterized the event as just a "family gathering."

Now, NBC Bay Area has a follow-up report, clarifying that the worker at Hundred Acre Wine, a longtime handyman on the property, had been building an outdoor fireplace, and he built a "basketball-sized" fire in order to cure or "temper" the new hearth. After the fire was out, he says he put the ashes in a bucket and doused the ashes with water. He then disposed of the ashes, and Singer says, "He believed the ashes had been extinguished."

The Pickett Fire began not long after this activity occurred.

Cal Fire has made no conclusion about the cause of the fire, but they say this is one potential cause.

Shawn Zimmermaker, Cal Fire’s Northern Region deputy chief of law enforcement, tells NBC Bay Area that simply dousing ashes with water is not sufficient, and that they should be cool to the touch, or else they could potentially cause reignition.

Jayson Woodbridge, the winemaker at Hundred Acre and Fleming Vineyards, put out a statement the first morning after the fire through Singer, saying that he had been manning hoses at the property "and we stood guard all night."

"The forest is obviously burned and it’s a large fire. No damage to the winery, no damage to the house; you know hundreds and hundreds of firemen deployed doing a great job and you know no idea how the fire started except it was 105° yesterday and blowing about 15-20 mph," Woodbridge said.

The investigation into 2020's Glass Fire, a far more destructive wildfire which burned in much of the same remote area as the Pickett Fire before crossing over into Sonoma County and burning south toward St. Helena, never landed on a conclusive cause for the blaze. In the initial weeks after the fire began, rumors spread that electrical fencing at a vineyard might have been to blame, and investigators looked at burn patterns on several properties, but the cause remains "undetermined."

Previously: Pickett Fire May Have Ignited During Set-Up of Unauthorized Wedding at Napa Winery

Photo via Cal Fire

A series of wildfires that were sparked by lightning Tuesday afternoon in multiple locations across Calaveras and Tuolumne counties have prompted evacuations, and one fire damaged multiple homes in the town of Chinese Camp.

The group of 22 distict fires, now known as the TCU September Lightning Complex, began around 4 pm Tuesday, after seasonal, monsoon-driven thunderstorms swept through the area. Several fires quickly grew, one called the 2-2 Fire growing to 3,463 acres, and the largest, called the 6-5 Fire, growing to 6,473 acres overnight.

There are now nine separate fires of 15 acres or more, and the fires are 0% contained as of Wednesday. So far there have been no reports of injuries or deaths in the fires.

The 6-5 Fire swept into the Gold Rush-era town of Chinese Camp, with a population of 90 people, destroying multiple structures and mobile homes. According to the Associated Press, at least five homes were on fire there Tuesday night, but photos from the town show widespread destruction of structures.

According to Cal Fire, "The fire has exhibited active runs in critically dry tall grass, brush, and timber fuels. The terrain is challenging to access, requiring fire crews to hike in by foot to many remote locations." The number of structures destroyed has not been confirmed.

Chinese Camp in Tuolumne County, or Chinese Camp Town, took on that name in 1850, after originally being called Camp Washington. It was at that time home to thousands of Chinese prospectors who came to cash in on the California Gold Rush, after they were reportedly driven out of a nearby camp.

The TCU September Lightning Complex has now burned almost 19 square miles, or 11,977 acres as of Wednesday morning. The group of fires are 0% contained.

The 6-5 fire has prompted evacuation orders for the towns of Yosemite Junction and Keystone, and an evacuation warning is in place for an area just south of Jamestown.

The second-largest blaze, the 2-2 Fire, is burning on both sides of Highway 4, west of Telegraph City.

The 584-acre 2-7 Fire is burning in the hills north of Vallecito, south of La Honda Park, and east of Angels Camp, and it has prompted evacuation orders for parts of Vallecito north of Highway 4. Parts of the town south of the highway are under an evacuation warning. Part of the town of Murphys, to the north of the blaze, is also under an evacuation order as of Wednesday.

Some of the worst wildfires in recent California history have been sparked by dry lightning at this time of year, including the disastrous 2020 blazes the August Complex, the LNU Lightning Complex, the CZU Lightning Complex, and the SCU Lightning Complex, which, all told impacted six out of nine Bay Area counties, and a wide swath of Northern California.

The August Complex, which ultimately grew to over 1 million acres, surpassed the 2018 Mendocino Complex to become the largest wildfire complex in state history.

Cal Fire is investigating whether the 6,800-acre Pickett Fire was caused by an outdoor fireplace at Hundred Acre Wines in Calistoga during preparations for an upcoming wedding. Weddings have been banned at wineries in Napa since 1990.

As the Chronicle reports, Sam Singer, a spokesperson for Hundred Acre Wines, confirmed in a statement Friday that the smoldering ashes produced by a fire in the venue’s new outdoor fireplace could have sparked the Pickett Fire. However, Singer claimed that the event that was scheduled to take place at Hundred Acre, which ultimately moved to a venue in St. Helena after the wildfire began, was merely a “family gathering.”

Alas, per the Chronicle, social media posts of the said “family gathering” on the property of the former Kelham Vineyards featured the bride, Emilyn Smith — daughter of Hundred Acre’s first employee, Burges Smith — walking down the aisle. Comments from friends congratulate the newlyweds on the “beautiful wedding.”  The Chronicle writes that around 85 guests attended the wedding, which was hosted pro bono by former Kelham co-owner, Hamilton Nicholsen.

The Chronicle notes that Napa County implemented the Winery Definition Ordinance in 1990, which forbids wineries from hosting non-wine-related social and cultural events, but plenty of wineries ignore the rule.

Jayson Woodbridge, the founder of Hundred Acre, has a history of flouting regulations, as the Chronicle writes. The Napa County District Attorney’s Office alleged he was producing wine without a permit in 2006, filing a criminal charge against him, which was dropped. In recent years, Woodbridge has been embroiled in various legal battles with the county, including a code violation case in 2022.

“I’m not afraid to speak up,” Woodbridge told the Chronicle at the time. “We shouldn’t have to be told by the county what we do with our private land.”

As the Patch reports, Cal Fire is investigating several potential causes of the Pickett Fire in addition to the ashes from Hundred Acre Wines. The outlet writes that the Pickett fire has caused $65 million in damage, which has mainly impacted wine grapes and beehives, according to Napa County Agricultural Commissioner Trace Cleveland.

As the Weather Channel reports, the fire was at 65% containment on Sunday night, with very limited damage and no reported injuries or death, thanks to the huge amount of firefighters sent to battle the blaze. The Weather Channel writes that a total of 176 engines, nine helicopters, and 35 bulldozers have been deployed, along with 2,064 personnel.

Image: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

• Social media is up in arms over a video of a local driver who appeared to be asleep at the wheel while her Tesla was in autonomous mode last week. The car was spotted coasting through Oakland’s MacArthur Maze as its driver had her head resting on a comfy pillow. [Chronicle]

• Former Delta Airlines pilot Rustom Bhagwagar and his ex-girlfriend Jennifer Powell appeared in court Friday where a judge determined the two will stand trial on 24 counts of child sexual abuse. Bhagwagar was pulled off a flight and arrested upon landing at San Francisco International Airport in July. [KRON4]

• After the California Highway Patrol’s reported success supporting the cities of Oakland and San Francisco with traffic enforcement, Newsom announced Thursday that CHP will be extending its support to Southern California police departments. [KPIX]
• JPMorgan Chase laid off 99 employees from its One Front Street location Wednesday without explanation. [KRON4]
• San Francisco teen Maryeli Rivera, 14, who has been missing for over a month, was last seen near her home on Potero Avenue on July 28 and is known to frequent the Third Street area in the Bayview. [KPIX]

National:

• Border patrol agents detained two firefighters battling a wildfire in Washington State Wednesday. The US Bureau of Land Management reportedly terminated the contracts of the two companies responsible for hiring the 44-person crew. [Associated Press]
• It’s been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast in a horrific, “slow moving catastrophe.” There were almost 1,400 deaths, mostly in New Orleans — 80% of which was under water, leaving residents stranded on their roofs or trapped at the Superdome. [CBS News]

• Trump has stripped protections from critics and ex-allies, including Fed Governor Lisa Cook, Chris Christie, and John Bolton, while also targeting New York Attorney General Letitia James and Senator Adam Schiff in a campaign of political retribution. [ABC News]

Video of the Day:

• Ride along with fifth-grade BART expert Bella and enjoy a virtual Summer Berry Lemonade at the Bay Fair Target, which looks very refreshing right about now!

• A possible cause of the Pickett Fire in northern Napa County is being investigated, and it could be linked to a contractor working for a vineyard. Cal Fire investigators think that a contract worker may have disposed of some ashes improperly, sparking the fire last Thursday. [NBC Bay Area]
• The former chief of staff at the center of the case to remove San Mateo County Sheriff Christina Corpus, Victor Aenlle, denied having any romantic relationship with Corpus in today's eighth day of the administrative hearing. Both Corpus and Aenlle have continued to deny their relationship in the hearing, despite witness testimony to the contrary. [KPIX]
• The San Francisco school board Tuesday unanimously rejected an effort by some parents to establish a new Mandarin-immersion school called Dragon Gate Academy, saying that the petition failed to meet state guidelines for the qualification of teachers, and how it will address the needs of special-needs students. [Chronicle]

National:

• The newly installed director of the Centers for Disease Control, Susan Monarez, is resisting an effort to remove her, after clashing with RFK Jr. over his irrational rejection of recommendations from a vaccine panel. It was reported just hours ago that she was resigning, but it turns out she is attempting to stay put after other multiple high-ranking CDC officials resigned en masse. [New York Times / CNN]
• Meanwhile, the FDA has just issued guidance for the updated COVID vaccine, and now adults who are not seniors will have to attest to having one underlying condition in order to receive a vaccine. [Associated Press]
• The shooter in the Minneapolis Catholic school shooting that killed two children this morning was a 23-year-old trans woman named Robin W. Westman who reportedly attended the school as a child, and had a litany of grievances against it. [New York Times]

Video:

• This YouTube travel channel Dots on a Map paid a visit to SF this past spring, and it's a fairly positive tour that includes a fairly accurate depiction of the Tenderloin — complete with stepping in poop! — a visit to the Hunky Jesus Contest, and some cioppino in North Beach.

Top image: Photo via Cal Fire LNU

The growth of the wildfire burning northeast of Calistoga was slowed overnight on Monday, thanks to the marine layer moving inland, and Cal Fire said they had reached 17% containment as of Tuesday morning.

These last few days have been something of a repeat of September 2020 for residents of Calistoga and the nearby communities of Angwin and Pope Valley, as a new wildfire has burned through much of the burn scar of the Glass Fire.

Thankfully, conditions have kept this fire, the Pickett Fire, more contained than that fire five years ago, which led to the evacuation of the entire city of Calistoga, spread west through canyons over to the Sonoma Valley, and bured the majority of its 67,484 acres on the Sonoma side. The Pickett Fire has been spreading more eastward, and stands today at 6,803 acres. That marks very minimal growth since Sunday afternoon, and no growth since Monday.

"A marine layer moved in overnight bringing decent humidity as the fire perimeter remains mostly within the Glass Fire Footprint," Cal Fire says in a status update. "Large fuels inside the perimeter continue to burn and smolder which will cause visible smoke over the fire area today. Firefighters will continue containment efforts and mop up while working in steep, rugged terrain."

Below is an approximate overlay of the Pickett Fire footprint, in blue, over the nearly final perimeters of the Glass Fire in red, for perspective. The map also shows the footprint of the 2017 Tubbs Fire in Sonoma County.

No significant property damage has been reported in the Pickett Fire to date, and reportedly no structures have burned.

Still, around 100 people remain under evacuation orders, and threats persist to more inhabited areas nearby if weather conditions shift.

A video below, posted just after noon on Tuesday by Cal Fire Operations Branch Director Rob Wettstein, shows a helicopter overview of the Pickett Fire as it stands, with just small portions still putting off smoke.

As discussed briefly here on Monday, the biggest casualty from the Pickett Fire may end up being the 2025 harvest for vineyards nearby, where grapes are likely to be rendered worthless by smoke taint.

Chris Jambois, the owner of Black Sears Winery, spoke to KPIX on Monday about losing his harvest due to smoke taint from the Glass Fire five years ago, and to smoke from the 2018 Camp Fire as well — which was 200 miles away in Paradise.

"If we do end up losing this crop, it'll be three out of the last eight years," Jambois tells the station. "We'll have some serious soul searching to do."

Jambois also spoke to the Chronicle, saying that he'd start tasting and testing his grapes next week, to assess the damage or lack thereof.

Diana Eackle Hawkins, owner of Pope Valley Winery, tells the Chronicle, "I’m confident that we’re not going to be seeing huge damages like we have in past years. I could be wrong."

Hawkins said there is a small hope that the short duration of the fire and its smoke might help them to avoid total smoke taint on her grapes.

"It felt like a very long weekend, but realistically this hasn’t been a huge duration," she tells the paper.

Previously: Pickett Fire in Napa County Spreads to 6,800 Acres, 11% Contained as of Sunday Afternoon

• Sheryl Davis, the disgraced former head of SF's Dream Keeper initiative and a former Human Rights Commission director, is now the subject of both an administrative probe by the city, and a criminal investigation by the SF District Attorney’s Office. The details of the criminal probe remain under wraps, but meanwhile, Davis continues to participate in civic events associated with her former organization and more, making some in City Hall uncomfortable. [Chronicle]
• There was a one-alarm fire Monday morning at a Recology facility at 501 Tunnel Avenue in Brisbane, and apparently a pile of metal in the construction recycling area caught fire. [NBC Bay Area]
• The Pickett Fire will more than likely cause smoke taint for grapes not yet harvested in the Howell Mountain and Pope Valley areas of northern Napa County — much as their grapes were unharvestable due to the Glass Fire in 2020. [Chronicle]

National:

• It still doesn't sound like it will pass legal muster, but President Trump has issued a new executive order ordering the Department of Defense to establish new "special units" within the National Guard to address "public order issues." [CNN]
• Many Democratic politicians, including Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, have come out denouncing Trump's threats to roll out the National Guard in Chicago as what it is, political theater. [Associated Press]
• Southwest Airlines has long encouraged plus-size passengers to purchase two seats and apply for a refund for the second seat, but it now says it is restricting the conditions under which those refunds will be allowed. [USA Today]

Video:

• This is a clip from The Lineup, the 1958 film starring Eli Wallach that was adapted from the popular TV series, featuring the Sutro Baths as the place looked at the time, with ice skaters on the indoor rink, and a whole bunch of nuns with those "flying" hats.

A wildfire that is burning in a remote area of Napa County in northern Calistoga grew overnight to over 2,100 acres, and it is currently 0% contained.

The Pickett Fire broke out Thursday afternoon along Pickett Road, northeast of Kenefick Ranch Vineyard and Winery and outside the city limits of Calistoga, starting just before 3 pm.

According to Cal Fire, 435 firefighters and 75 engines are currently battling the blaze, with hot and dry conditions expected to continue through Friday.

"Overnight, firefighters were engaged in suppression efforts and were supported by three night-flying helicopters conducting water drops on the fire," Cal Fire says. "The dozers on site worked to re-establish fire access roads as well as constructing contingency lines."

Cal Fire Division Chief Ryan Isham said in a video that fire activity diminished as humidity increased overnight.

"We've taken advantage of this by continuing to use water dropping aircraft to help suppress the fire throughout the night, and we've been going direct on the fire whenever possible," Isham said.

Evacuation orders are in places for zones north of the Silverado Trail, south of Pickett Road, east of Rosedale Road, west of Pickett Road; north of Clover Flat Road and west of Ditch Henry Road; and north of Pickett Road and Silverado Trail, south of Old Lawley Toll Road, east of Palisades Road, and west of Dutch Henry Canyon Road.

Other areas are under evacuation warnings, as seen on this map.

Several vineyards and wineries are within the evacuation areas, including some that sustained damage in the 2020 Glass Fire.

As the Chronicle notes, the Pickett Fire broke out not long after Cal Fire's LNU unit had contained a smaller fire, the McKinley Fire, in Lake County north of Middletown.

Monsoonal lightning is being predicted for some already dry and fire-plagued areas of Southern California later this week, as a heatwave prepares to settle in across much of the state.

A Heat Advisory is in effect starting Thursday morning at 10 am for much of the interior Bay Area, including the non-coastal Peninsula, all of the East Bay east of the hills, and much of Napa, Solano, and eastern Sonoma counties. You'll note that San Francisco is not included in there, and it seems like most of Marin County along with Richmond, Berkeley, Oakland, San Mateo, and towns on the ocean will be spared. This advisory extends through 10 pm Friday.

An Extreme Heat Watch was issued by the National Weather Service for the Central Valley south of Santa Clara and San Joaquin counties, and an Extreme Heat Warning is in place for the same period for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties.

A Red Flag Warning has been issued for San Luis Obispo and Santa Barbara counties starting Thursday morning and extending through Saturday morning, due to the possibility of lightning strikes and conditions that are ideal for rapid wildfire growth. Other areas around Los Angeles and the foothills of Ventura County are under a Red Flag Warning that starts on Wednesday.

While San Francisco could see a balmy high of 78 on Thursday, prompting some impromptu park and beach trips, other parts of the Bay Area will likely see more extreme temps.

The National Weather Service predicts a high of 107 in Concord on Thursday, and 101 in San Rafael, with a high of 93 in Santa Rosa. Temperatures cool down a bit Friday, and by Saturday, San Francisco's high is forecast to be 70, with the deep East Bay cooling into the 80s by Sunday.

Photo by Jo Dorais