The hills above Napa are set to burn on purpose early this week, as CAL FIRE’s Sonoma‑Lake‑Napa Unit and the Napa County Fire Department carry out a 100‑acre prescribed fire at Castleview Ranch in the Wild Horse Valley community near the Napa–Solano county line. The burn is scheduled for today and tomorrow, with crews planning to start lighting around 9:00 AM and work through about 5:00 PM both days. Smoke is expected to be visible across eastern Napa during daylight hours as part of a fuel‑reduction push meant to dial down the intensity of future wildfires in the surrounding hills.
According to the CAL FIRE LNU, CAL FIRE and the Napa County Fire Department will lead the Castleview operation, which is part of the larger Castleview fuel‑reduction project. Local partners are backing the work, and officials say residents should expect visible smoke during both burn days.
🚨 Prescribed burn alert for Monday, June 22 and Tuesday, June 23
— CAL FIRE LNU (@CALFIRELNU) June 21, 2026
CAL FIRE and the Napa County Fire Department will be leading a 100-acre prescribed burn Monday and Tuesday on the Castleview Ranch, located within the Wild Horse Valley Community near the Napa County border with… pic.twitter.com/fQXO2m9ijm
Project Aims And Methods
The Castleview operation fits into a wider Wild Horse Valley fuel‑reduction plan that spans several hundred acres and relies on a mix of mechanical thinning, pile burning and broadcast burning to knock down both vertical and horizontal fuels. A Napa County planning memo that cleared the Castle View and Four Winds projects under CEQA lists “pile burning” and “broadcast burning” among the mitigation tools to be used. Detailed maps, project boundaries and the reasoning behind the treatments are laid out in Napa County documents.
What Residents Should Expect
Fire crews say the work will be carefully staged and monitored, but neighbors should be ready for visible smoke columns through the day and some short‑term visibility issues on nearby roads. For non‑emergencies, officials are asking residents to check official burn listings instead of calling 911 every time they see smoke. Many land‑management partners point residents to the WatchDuty app for real‑time unit maps and schedules.
Guidance from Sonoma Land Trust outlines how managers post smoke alerts and the visibility people can expect from prescribed burns in the region. The CAL FIRE burn‑permit site provides official permit details and listings for planned operations.
Why This Matters Now
The Castleview burn lands at a moment when state and local agencies are rapidly expanding the use of prescribed fire as a core wildfire‑mitigation tool, a priority the Governor’s office highlighted this month. At the same time, the practice is under sharper public scrutiny. An escaped prescribed burn earlier in June grew into the Putah Fire, a pointed reminder that crews make go or no‑go decisions on the day of a burn based on wind, humidity and fuel conditions. Reporting from the San Francisco Chronicle places the Castleview work in that broader statewide debate over risk, reward and timing.
Partners And Local Context
CAL FIRE says the Castleview project is coordinated with local groups such as Napa Communities Firewise and the Coombsville/Wild Horse Valley Fire Safe Council, which have been doing hands‑on mitigation and outreach in the valley for years. Those organizations mix mechanical treatments with prescribed fire to increase defensible space and boost community resilience. Napa Firewise offers maps and preparedness resources for residents, and the county has noted that Castleview Ranch has been hit by wildfire in the past, which helped shape the current mitigation plan. The County of Napa has pointed to that fire history in its public updates.
For the latest timing and smoke information, residents are encouraged to monitor CAL FIRE LNU and County of Napa outlets or use the WatchDuty app for live maps and status reports. If you believe the smoke you are seeing is from a new, uncontrolled fire, call 911. Otherwise, officials say to rely on posted burn notices for routine prescribed operations.
