Fire on Bloomfield Rd. Aug. 5

[Shepherd]

An article about the Aug. 5 fire at 3545 Bloomfield Rd. in the countryside appears in this week's Sonoma West and can be read at the link below. "Afternoon blaze a cautionary lesson" the sub-headline reads. This fire should be a warning to our neighborhood and other rural places.

The fire was started on a new 70-acre vineyard conversion by an apparently new vineyard owner, who refused to comment to the reporter. He foolishly was using a tractor in 90 degree weather in the afternoon on his private property, thus threatening our neighborhood during this time of drought. My neighbors watched the bright red flames across the road and were glad that the wind was not coming their way, which could have caused the fire to damage their working food farm.

We private citizens are required to conserve water, whereas the wine industry can use as much as they want, without restrictions or regulations. That's thousands of gallons of water trucked in to contain the fire. There are multiple unintended consequences of the expanding Wine Empire, including the romantic notion by newcomers that they can just put in a beautiful vineyard, host parties, and soon make lots of money. 60-65 firefighters and some planes came to the rescue, at considerable cost of time and work. 11 acres were burned and many hours spent containing this small fire in a time of drought.

This has not been a very neighborly incident on behalf of yet another vineyard developer. When is enough enough? It's time to push-back.

https://www.sonomawest.com/sonoma_we...95c357ffe.html