The sky obscured by a blanket of yellowish smoke, an acrid smell of burning, a stinging throat… Since mid-August, California has been plagued by violent fires that have already devastated more than 1.7 million hectares . North of San Francisco, the Glass Fire is the latest: it broke out in Napa Valley on Sunday, September 27 and has already destroyed 293 homes. Among them, that of Denis Jaquenoud, a French-speaking Swiss native of Lausanne, and installed for six years in the region. “There is a fireplace, the rest is razed. We had left a car in front of the house, it literally melted, due to the very intense heat of the fire.“This wine and hospitality professional is still struggling to realize what he has just suffered, after several harmless alerts since August:”On Monday morning, my wife got up around 5am saying that she smelled smoke in the house. At 8am, we received the warning messages advising us to evacuate the area where we were. Fortunately, we can count on the help of the local community: a friend that we had hosted during the fires of 2017 and 2018 offered to welcome us.”
The previous weekend, Denis Jaquenoud had finally emptied the suitcases of his evacuation in August, without suspecting that they would be used a week later: “We said to ourselves that it was again a preventive evacuation, we weren’t really worried. But on the night from Sunday to Monday, the winds changed, it was very dry, and the fire spread to our neighborhood. ” The next morning, the news broke: Meadowood, the luxury hotel near Denis Jaquenoud’s house, partially burned down, along with a few houses. The area is closed to access, making it difficult to identify with certainty who was affected. Unfortunately, the confirmation came on Monday evening.
Still in shock at the news, Denis Jaquenoud can only make a bitter assessment of 2020: the destruction of his house adds to a difficult year for Napa Valley, affected by the COVID epidemic, then by the fires, two factors which have largely slowed down tourism, and which will have consequences on harvests. “Fire is part of nature’s natural cycle, but we wonder if we are going through this cycle, or if annual fires will become the norm. The climate is changing, that’s clear“, Notes Denis Jaquenoud. “Some have decided to harvest in advance, to avoid too much damage to the vines, others have preferred to wait. Smoke or too intense heat may necessitate replanting a vineyard. This will then take seven to ten years before producing a good wine. ” However, he consoles himself thanks to the good sales figures for bottles recorded during confinement, and a rather good harvest. Devoting 14 hours a day to making sure that the hotels and estates in his charge get through these hardships as well as possible is also a good way to keep the mind busy.
On a personal level, Denis Jaquenoud tries to see the positive of the situation: “When we moved from New York to Napa, we dreamed of a house overlooking the valley… That dream went up in smoke, and we will no longer choose a house high up on a wooded hill… When we live abroad, it’s hard to build your roots. For us, this fire is somewhere a “chance” to rebuild something…”
