Quail Fire near Winters leaps to 1,200 acres, destroying 2 structures, threatening 100 more
A fast-spreading wildfire fueled by strong winds in Solano County continued to burn through the night after prompting mandatory evacuation orders and doubling in size in less than 90 minutes Saturday evening, authorities said.
The Quail Fire burned at least 1,200 acres and was 5 percent containment, Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit said in an update just before 9 p.m. At 7:45 p.m., the blaze had scorched 600 acres not far from Putah Creek and Lake Solano County Park.
Officials from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said at least two structures were destroyed and 100 buildings were threatened.
The vegetation fire started shortly after 4:30 p.m. near Quail Canyon and Pleasants Valley roads about 5 miles southwest of Winters and 15 miles north of Vacaville, and burned with 0 percent containment for nearly four hours as firefighters used aerial retardant to protect homes.
Evacuations were ordered on Quails Canyon Road from Pleasants Valley Road to Highway 128. The Winters Police Department in social media posts said the evacuation center would be at Three Oaks Community Center (1100 Alamo Drive, Vacaville), with evacuees showing up to the previous designated site of Winters Community Center being redirected there. Being among the first fire evacuation centers in California to be activated since the coronavirus pandemic started, officials from the Red Cross officials said they had set up COVID-19 screenings there.
In an 11:15 p.m. update, Cal Fire said 600 personnel were assigned to the blaze and more resources were in en route. Officials said numerous firefighting air tankers had flown fire suppression missions “as conditions allow.”
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
A plume of smoke from the fire, burning in hilly scrub, could be seen from Interstate 80. Photos posted to social media showed smoke from the fire rolling into Davis around 6 p.m. Minutes later, smoke rolled east across parts of Sacramento County.
A wind advisory expired at 11 p.m. for the area and portions of the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. National Weather Service officials, however, issued an message late Saturday:“Winds have decreased below advisory levels, but they will continue to blow about 10 to 20 mph through the night” through the Carquinez Strait into Fairfield. Easterly gusts of 35 mph were observed in the Vaca Mountains west of the blaze around 2 a.m., but forecasters said winds would gradually diminish before sunrise Sunday.
UC Davis Fire Department Chief Nathan Trauernicht in a tweet just before 6 p.m. said smoke that could be seen at the university campus is from the Quail Fire. One unit from his department was sent to assist the containment effort, but no fires are burning in the immediate vicinity of Davis, he said.
Cal Fire’s Sonoma-Lake-Napa unit, which also covers Solano County, was simultaneously battling another acre wildfire, the Gulch Fire in Sonoma County. Cal Fire reports forward progress on that fire was stopped at 107 acres, downgrading the estimated size from an earlier report of 150 acres.
A strike team from Cal Fire’s Butte unit also responded to the Quail Fire, the unit said on Twitter. Just after 2:30 a.m., San Francisco Fire Department officials said it had dispatched five engines to the blaze as well. In all, more than 30 engines were assigned to the blaze overnight.
This story was originally published June 6, 2020 at 5:48 PM.
