May 15, 2026
Napa County’s 2026 fire season is shaping up to be above average — early heat waves have dried out fuels ahead of schedule, and predicted El Niño conditions could bring dry lightning on top of that. Against that backdrop, the Napa Communities Firewise Foundation just completed a $1.5 million fuel break along 11 miles of Hogback Ridge in the southern Mayacamas Mountains, transforming a flame-intensifying ridgeline into a strategic anchor point for firefighters.
Napa County Fire Chief Matt Ryan, who fought the 2017 Nuns Fire on that same terrain, said a line like this would have made a difference then. The project protected the ridge through a combination of a U.S. Forest Service grant, $1.4 million from Napa Valley Vintners, and coordination across multiple private landowners — the kind of cross-sector alignment that turns a geographic feature into a genuine defense. The work doesn’t stop at the ridgeline: Ryan and other fire officials were clear that home hardening and defensible space remain the first line of protection for every resident.
Read the full story by Barry Eberling at Napa Valley Register.
