A major wildfire started at Hairpin Curve on Deer Park Road, October 10, and swept up the slopes of Howell Mountain toward Angwin. Within minutes it engulfed the home of James McDannald and left it a pile of ashes. Five minutes later it torched James' shop and destroyed his collection of nine antique motorcycles.

Numerous other homes were threatened but an army of fire fighters converged on the scene and slowed its advance short of Crestmont. Hundreds of men and women enroute from northern California to a big fire in southern California were stopped and diverted to the Deer fire and more than a dozen bombers and helicopters with buckets started pouring water and slurry on the burning brush.

More than 1500 fire fighters were moved into the battle during the next three days. The blaze which moved uphill along both sides of Deer Park Road and then turned southward. It. burned 300 acres before it was contained.

Deer Park Road was closed and traffic into the Napa Valley detoured down Old Howell Mountain Road. After the fire, local residents coming up Deer Park Road could see a number of homes where firemen had stopped the fire within a few feet of the structure.

The fire was started by a vehicle that pulled off the road and its metal underbody striking a rock threw a spark into the dry grass.

Mrs. McDannald was out of town, and James had just left home for 15 minutes to visit the hardware store in Angwin. He was coming home when the highway patrol stopped him and he had to watch his home and shop burst into flame from up on Sunset Drive. The loss was painful in several ways. James, 83 years old, had built the house many years ago and it was full of family memorabilia. His hobby for some time has been rebuilding antique motorcycles and racing them in regional and national competitions. All were lost when the fire took his shop.

Angwin residents along Sunset Drive and Crestmont Drive could look down onto the fire as it came toward Angwin and in the other direction toward Meadowood. The line of fire trucks from numerous northern California communities lined the road.

The detour of traffic up and down the steep and ancient Howell Mountain Road raised questions about the safety of Angwin residents in the case of such fires. All it would take to block traffic on that narrow winding road would be one vehicle veering crosswise into the ditch or into the path of an on-coming truck. That would leave only the road down the hill to Pope Valley for evacuation, miles from the St. Helena Hospital and any shelter. Elder residents and the hundreds of Pacific Union College students would be stranded.

Long-time resident Donna Morgan appeared at the Napa County Board of Supervisors meeting on the 13th to express that concern and present it as another argument against the PUC/Triad proposal to build 380 more houses in Angwin.

What would happen, she asked, if there had not been hundreds of fire fighters available to converge on the fire, or if the wind had changed or if the fire had started at night when the aircraft could not fly? Dozens of homes could have been destroyed and people could have lost their lives. All it would take would be one spark, and the escape routes blocked