Nov. 2, 2023Updated: Nov. 2, 2023 9 p.m.

Fires in El Cerrito and San Rafael sent smoky air into San Francisco on Thursday.

St Lowitsch/Getty Images

Two Bay Area fires pushed smoke into San Francisco on Thursday afternoon.

The first fire was a prescribed burn in San Rafael’s China Camp State Park scheduled from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., according to the Marin Fire Department. “Neighborhoods surrounding China Camp State Park may see and smell smoke due to a prescribed fire operation,” the department said.

In El Cerrito, firefighters battled a downhill blaze moving toward Julian Drive near the intersection of Douglas Drive and Potrero Avenue, according to a post by police shortly after 2:30 p.m. At 3:11 p.m., police said, the fire had been extinguished and advised the public to avoid the area while firefighters continued cleanup operations.

Potrero Avenue between Navellier Street and Julian Drive remained closed during cleanup operations.

Reach Jordan Parker: jordan.parker@sfchronicle.com; Twitter: @jparkerwrites

Jordan Parker is a breaking news reporter for The San Francisco Chronicle. He graduated from Sacramento State University in May 2022 with a degree in journalism. During his time there, he spent three years as a reporter and editor for the university’s award-winning student newspaper, The State Hornet. He spent his senior year of college serving as The Hornet’s first Black editor in chief, leading the organization to two Pacemaker awards and several other national honors from the Associated Collegiate Press. When he’s not chasing down a story, he likes watching movies, traveling and trying new restaurants.

The post Fires in El Cerrito, San Rafael ship smoke to San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

San Francisco and federal officials on Wednesday toured a transit center called “The Portal” that is under construction and slated to bring regional and city transit together and recently went up in cost by more than $1 billion.

Shortly after the price hike, tech billionaire Elon Musk claimed his tunneling company, the Boring Company, could build the project for 1% of the multibillion-dollar cost.

This will take an eternity and hurt taxpayers badly.

The @boringcompany can solve this problem for ~1% of this cost.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 28, 2023

READ MORE: Cost of San Francisco Downtown Rail Extension Swells to $8.2B

An official leading the project’s construction pushed back on Musk’s claim after the tour.

“What we’re doing is different than their company was founded to do, at least to date,” said Adam Van de Water, executive director of the Transbay Joint Powers Authority, which is heading up construction of the transit center.

Van de Water said Musk’s company specializes in smaller tunnels meant for single-occupancy vehicles and not tunnels meant to accommodate mass transit.

“I did see [Musk’s] tweet, and we’re excited [The Portal] is getting more exposure and awareness,” Van de Water said.

READ MORE: What is ‘The Portal’? San Francisco’s Future Downtown Rail Line Plan Gets a New Name, and Merch

Transbay Joint Powers Authority Executive Director Adam Van de Water shows acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su the space under the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco on Wednesday. A new high-speed rail terminus is going to be built under the facility. | Source: Michaela Vatcheva for The Standard

The Portal, formerly called the Downtown Rail Extension, is a tunneling project that will link Caltrain from the station at Fourth and Townsend streets to AC Transit and San Francisco Muni buses inside the Salesforce Transit Center at 425 Mission St.

The Portal is viewed by transit boosters as a linchpin of a regional transit system that will eventually unite Caltrain, San Francisco’s bus system and high-speed rail.

Van de Water said Caltrain is expected to service the Salesforce Transit Center via The Portal by 2032, and that if high-speed rail were fully funded immediately, those trains could service the station by 2033.

After the tour, acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su lauded and expressed support for unions that worked on the project, which Van de Water said used labor and materials from 48 U.S. states.

Transbay Joint Powers Authority Executive Director Adam Van de Water shows acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su the Salesforce Transit Center in San Francisco on Wednesday. | Source: Michaela Vatcheva for The Standard

“President Biden believes by investing in America, investing in workers, we can build a stronger nation,” Su said. “All of that can be done through good union jobs and a path to the middle class.”

The Downtown Rail Extension has been decades in the making, and its estimated cost has ballooned from $6.5 billion to a staggering $8.25 billion since October 2022, according to the Metropolitan Transportation Commission. In 2016, the cost of the rail extension was estimated at $3.9 billion. 

Transbay Joint Powers Authority Executive Director Adam Van de Water shows acting U.S. Secretary of Labor Julie Su the space under the Salesforce Transit Center. | Source: Michaela Vatcheva for The Standard

Of the recent cost increase, $729 million is attributed to a request that the federal government credit the costs of a train box at the transit center that Van de Water described as “mostly completed.”

The remaining $7.5 billion in cost is completing the platforms at Fourth and Townsend stations and the Salesforce Transit Center and boring a tunnel miles through the ground to connect the two stations with Caltrain service.

Caltrain’s new electric fleet was available for a first-glance tour in San Jose on July 29. | Source: Joel Umanzor/The Standard

The Transbay Joint Powers Authority said in 2022 that the rail extension would bring “California’s statewide high-speed rail service into Downtown San Francisco at the TJPA multimodal facility, Salesforce Transit Center, which currently connects nine transit systems (found within and around) to eight Bay Area counties.”

California has been developing a high-speed rail system running between San Francisco and Los Angeles since voters approved it in 2008. As of May 2023, 90 miles of guideway, a track or riding surface to support or guide transit vehicles, have been built, with another 119 miles of the project under construction, according to the California High-Speed Rail Authority.

The post San Francisco $8B Transit Heart Boss Fires Again at Elon Musk appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

A UC Berkeley researcher says that automatic gas shutoff devices, like those used in Los Angeles and Japan, could cut the number of post-earthquake fires in half in San Francisco.

But the city of San Francisco has yet to embrace shutoff technology, said Charles Scawthorn, an internationally recognized expert on fires after quakes. He says Japan has long relied on gas shutoffs built into gas meters – in part because of the lessons learned from the Kanto earthquake and fire, which killed an estimated 100,000 people.

“This was truly hell on earth,” Scawthorn said of the 7.9 magnitude quake that hit Tokyo on Sept. 1, 1923.

The disaster killed more than 10,000 people outright. But far more, an estimated 80,000 lives, were lost in the 100 fires that broke out in the hours after the initial quake.

“In peacetime, it is unquestionably the largest fire fatality in history,” Scawthorn said, adding that half the 80,000 fire victims survived the quake but were caught up in what is known as a “fire whirl.”

“The winds were so strong,” he said. “They wound up generating what amounts to what are called fire whirls. They are fire tornadoes and in one location, effectively a large school yard, it killed 40,000 people who were taking shelter.”

While open cooking flames used to make lunch-time meals sparked most of the Kanto fires, gas lines are the danger today.

To counter the modern danger, Japan now requires seismically sensitive gas meters, equipped with devices that sense shaking and automatically cut off gas flow within seconds.

Scawthorn estimates there could be as many as 100 fires following a major quake in San Francisco, but the same technology could prevent half of them. That, he said, would give the city’s 44 engine companies a fighting chance to save the city.

“If you can cut those fires in half, that’s profound,” said San Francisco Board of Supervisors president Aaron Peskin. He says the city has already led the way with strict building standards and is spending billions of dollars to assure fire crews have enough water to fight post-quake fires.

“It makes perfect sense that we put our money where our mouth is,” Peskin said. “And make sure that the city doesn’t burn down in a major earthquake.’’

Still, two decades ago, a state advisory panel concluded the benefit of preventing an estimated two dozen gas-sparked fires in a major quake would be outweighed by the costs. The panel worried about the extended delays in restoring service, in part from crews having to go out and relight pilot lights for tens of thousands of undamaged homes.

Since then, San Francisco has failed to act, even after a city task force concluded in 2017 that benefits of gas shutoff devices would be “significantly greater than the cost.”

“It’s better to have a house with no gas than no house,” said Carl Strand, a quake safety consultant who represents a firm that makes gas shut-off devices customers can install themselves.

The comparatively low-cost technology relies on a ball that simply moves into place to block gas flow in response to strong shaking.

“These have to shut within five seconds,” Strand said.

But so far, Los Angeles is the only big city in California to require automatic shutoff devices to be installed on new projects. The mandate came after 50 gas fed fires erupted following the 1994 Northridge earthquake.

In the Bay Area, Berkeley is the city to require shutoff devices on new projects.

Peskin says it’s time San Francisco did something to counter the obvious danger of gas-sparked fires.

“There is no time like the present,” he said. “I’m not going to cry about why it didn’t happen until now.”

Meanwhile, PG&E is getting behind the concept of meter-based seismic shutoffs, with a pilot project in the works to evaluate two prototype meters like those used in Japan, the company says.

Whatever technology is adopted, Scawthorn hopes the Bay Area will finally learn the 100-year-old lesson of the Kanto quake before it’s too late.

“As Mark Twain said, you know, history may not repeat itself, but it sure rhymes,” he said.

What happens with the gas meters during a big earthquake? Other earthquake-prone areas have made important safety upgrades. So why isn’t it happening widespread in the Bay Area? Raj Mathai speaks with investigative reporter Jaxon Van Derbeken on this.

The post Computerized fuel shutoffs might lower San Francisco post-quake fires in half, knowledgeable says – NBC Bay Space appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Between the start of 2017 and the end of June this year, Maaleht reports (link in Estonian) of 3,150 fires in residential properties, 212 related to saunas located in internal rooms, while another 242 broke out in separate, often wooden, houses.

The problem affects both traditional smoke saunas and electric-heated versions – 71 of the blazes in the statistics quoted above relate to the latter, including those arising from faulty wiring etc, while fires due to faulty construction are even more common.

Last year there were 96 sauna fires in Estonia in the past year, Maaleht adds, with the summer months particularly affected as people head to the countryside for the long evenings.

Fortunately, the very nature of the sauna – not a place to linger for long periods of time and often housed in buildings separate from the main dwelling – mean that human casualties are rare in Estonia, Maaleht says.

Still, fires are fires, and in one case a family lost their entire sauna house, thanks to a faulty and wrongly-installed chimney, though thankfully the family were unscathed.

Aivar Kukk, chief inspector of the safety supervision office at the Rescue Board’s northern district center said that: “Combustible material (wooden structure, firewood, etc.) can get too close to any part of the sauna heater – either the heater, the connecting pipe or the chimney itself,” which can end in a blaze, while many newer-style electric heaters end up being bolted to the wall instead of via the fastener they come supplied with, which can mean a conflagration is only a matter of time, he added.

Another thing which can get overlooked is the comfort zone people can get into as regards a 20-year-old sauna which has functioned perfectly well all that time – signs of possible catastrophe, which include charring on internal wooden walls – must be heeded, Kukk said, while naturally risks are greater during and immediately after hot, dry summers.

Other essentials include making sure, in the case of a traditional sauna, the sauna’s chimney is regularly swept by a qualified chimney sweep (korstnapühkija), while neophytes should get themselves acquainted with all aspects of sauna safety, or consult with an expert.

Many cases of fires also result from a failure to have flooring and other areas close to a fireplace protected with fire-resistant material, very risky in a situation where sparks etc. can jump out, while chimneys too should be isolated in this way – pitch coating the inside of a flue can also burn.

The original Maaleht piece (in Estonian) is here.

Maaleht is an agricultural weekly and is published by Ekspress Meedia.

—

Follow ERR News on Facebook and Twitter and never miss an update!

The post Weekly: Almost 100 sauna fires in previous 12 months a trigger for concern | Information appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

(THE CONVERSATION) In today’s electronic age, rechargeable lithium-ion batteries are ubiquitous. Compared with the lead-acid versions that have dominated the battery market for decades, lithium-ion batteries can charge faster and store more energy for the same amount of weight.

These devices make our electronic gadgets and electric cars lighter and longer-lasting – but they also have disadvantages. They contain a lot of energy, and if they catch fire, they burn until all of that stored energy is released. A sudden release of huge amounts of energy can lead to explosions that threaten lives and property.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

As scientists who study energy generation, storage and conversion, and automotive engineering, we have a strong interest in the development of batteries that are energy-dense and safe. And we see encouraging signs that battery manufacturers are making progress toward solving this significant technical problem.

Urban transportation is undergoing a transformative shift toward electrification. As concerns grow in cities around the world about climate change and air quality, electric vehicles have taken center stage.

At the same time, e-bikes and electric scooters are transforming urban transit by providing convenient, low-carbon ways to navigate crowded streets and reduce traffic congestion. From 2010 through 2022, shared e-bikes and e-scooters – those owned by rental networks – accounted for more than half a billion trips in U.S. cities. Privately owned e-bikes add to that total: In 2021, more than 880,000 e-bikes were sold in the U.S., compared with 608,000 electric cars and trucks.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Battery-powered vehicles account for a small share of car fires, but controlling EV fires is difficult. Typically, an EV fire burns at roughly 5,000 degrees Fahrenheit (2,760 Celsius), while a gasoline-powered vehicle on fire burns at 1,500 F (815 C). It takes about 2,000 gallons of water to extinguish a burning gasoline-powered vehicle; putting out an EV fire can take 10 times more.

This is a major concern in large cities where electric vehicles are popular. Fire departments in New York City and San Francisco report handling more than 660 fires involving lithium-ion batteries since 2019. In New York City, these fires caused 12 deaths and more than 260 injuries from 2021 through early 2023. Clearly, there is a need for safer handling and charging practices, as well as technical improvements to batteries.

To understand lithium-ion battery fires, it’s important to know some basics. A battery holds chemicals that contain energy, with a separator between its positive and negative electrodes. It works by converting this energy into electricity.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

The two electrodes in a battery are surrounded by an electrolyte – a substance that allows an electrical charge to flow between the two terminals. In a lithium-ion battery, for example, lithium ions carry the electric charge. When a device is connected to a battery, chemical reactions take place on the electrodes and create a flow of electrons in the external circuit that powers the device.

Cellphones and digital cameras can operate on a single battery, but an electric car needs much more energy and power. Depending on its design, an EV may contain dozens to thousands of single batteries, which are known as cells. Cells are clustered together in sets called modules, which in turn are assembled together in packs. A standard EV will contain one large battery pack with many cells inside it.

What causes battery fires

Typically, a battery fire starts in a single cell inside a larger battery pack. There are three main reasons for a battery to ignite: mechanical harm, such as crushing or penetration when vehicles collide; electrical harm from an external or internal short circuit; or overheating.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Battery short circuits may be caused by faulty external handling or unwanted chemical reactions within the battery cell. When lithium-ion batteries are charged too quickly, chemical reactions can produce very sharp lithium needles called dendrites on the battery’s anode – the electrode with a negative charge. Eventually, they penetrate the separator and reach the other electrode, short-circuiting the battery internally.

Such short circuits heat the battery cell to over 212 F (100 C). The battery’s temperature rises slowly at first and then all at once, spiking to its peak temperature in about one second.

Another factor that makes lithium-ion battery fires challenging to handle is oxygen generation. When the metal oxides in a battery’s cathode, or positively charged electrode, are heated, they decompose and release oxygen gas. Fires need oxygen to burn, so a battery that can create oxygen can sustain a fire.

Because of the electrolyte’s nature, a 20% increase in a lithium-ion battery’s temperature causes some unwanted chemical reactions to occur much faster, which releases excessive heat. This excess heat increases the battery temperature, which in turn speeds up the reactions. The increased battery temperature increases the reaction rate, creating a process called thermal runaway. When this happens, the temperature in a battery can rise from 212 F (100 C) to 1,800 F (1000 C) in a second.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Managing the thermal runaway problem

Methods to ensure battery safety can focus on conditions outside or inside of the battery. External protection typically involves using electronic devices, like temperature sensors and pressure valves, to ensure that the battery isn’t subjected to heat or force that could cause an accident.

However, these mechanisms make the battery larger and heavier, which can reduce the performance of the device it powers. And they may not be reliable under extreme temperatures or pressures, such as those produced in a car crash.

Internal protection strategies focus on using intrinsically safe materials for battery components. This approach offers an opportunity to address potential hazards at their source.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Another solution is already in use: battery management systems. These are hardware and software packages built into battery packs that can monitor vital battery parameters, such as the state of charge, internal pressure and the temperature of the cells in the battery pack.

Just as a physician uses a patient’s symptoms to diagnose and treat their illness, battery management systems can diagnose conditions within the battery pack and make autonomous decisions to shut off batteries with hot spots, or to alter the load distribution so that any individual battery does not get too hot.

Battery chemistries are evolving rapidly, so new designs will require new battery management systems. Many battery producers are forming partnerships that bring together manufacturers with complementary battery expertise to tackle this challenge.

Advertisement

Article continues below this ad

Users can also take steps to maximize safety. Use manufacturer-recommended charging equipment and outlets, and avoid overcharging or leaving an EV plugged in overnight. Inspect the battery regularly for signs of damage or overheating. Park the vehicle away from extremely hot or cold surroundings – for example, park in shade during heat waves – to prevent thermal stress on the battery.

Finally, in the event of a collision or accident involving an EV, follow the manufacturer’s safety protocols and disconnect the battery if possible to minimize the risk of fire or electrocution.

The post Lithium-ion battery fires are a rising public security concern − this is find out how to cut back the danger appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Bay Area winemakers will remember 2021 as the year without wildfires.

In sharp contrast to the past several years, no Wine Country estates were destroyed, no Cabernet grapes tainted by smoke, no fermentations abandoned in the wake of an emergency evacuation order. Many vintners held their breath through the last few months, knowing that the state’s deadliest fire, the 2018 Camp Fire, wasn’t extinguished until Nov. 25. Instead, the region’s autumn was smooth and easy — a brief and welcome reprieve from the serial disasters that had led this industry to fear it would never see “normal” again.

“It really was a redemption harvest,” said Montse Reece, winemaker at Pedroncelli Winery in Geyserville. “We expected the worst, we were ready, and it was fine.”

That’s not to say that the 2021 vintage didn’t bear the troubling marks of climate change. California’s extreme drought drove grape yields down — so much so that in at least one vineyard, the grapes couldn’t be harvested at all. With no signs that the drought will abate anytime soon, grape growers are preparing themselves for another year of light crops that are more likely to mature in the frazzled summer heat than in the calmer, milder fall.

That larger existential crisis still looms. But for now, industry players are taking solace where they can, and many say they’re feeling grateful for the relatively breezy year.

Some winemakers had forgotten what it was like to spend the months of August, September and October focused on making wine, rather than on dodging fires and remedying smoky grape juice. In 2019, a significant portion of Healdsburg’s Grist Vineyard grapes went unpicked due to concerns about wildfire smoke; in 2020, none of its grapes was usable.

In 2021, finally, it made wine: “The feeling of being able to pick everything in our vineyard was so foreign,” said Woody Hambrecht, Grist’s owner.

The 2021 harvest season offered an inspiring reversal of the doomsday scenario that had begun to take hold. It turns out it’s still possible, even as climate change transforms the realities of viticulture in California, to make great wine here. Or, at least, it was still possible for one more year.

Winemaker Montse Reece holds a branch from a 100-year-old Zinfandel vine at Pedroncelli Winery in Dry Creek Valley in Geyserville.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

The blows to Wine Country during the past four years just kept coming.

In 2017, a series of nearby fires ignited in early October in Napa and Sonoma counties, burning 7,000 homes and killing 45 people. The Kincade Fire in 2019 enveloped the prestigious growing area of Alexander Valley in eastern Sonoma County; the smoke emanating from that blaze spread to other parts of Wine Country, too, compromising the grapes. Aside from wildfires, heat spikes during peak harvest time — in 2017, Reece saw temperatures surge to 115 degrees — created chaotic conditions, pushing grapes into overripe sugar levels suddenly and threatening wine quality.

Then came 2020, with its nearly unfathomable levels of calamity. A lightning siege in August resulted in major fires in wine regions from Sonoma County to Monterey County, and the early timing meant that virtually all of the state’s wine grapes were still hanging on the vine, vulnerable to smoke taint. Then in late September came the Glass Fire, which damaged more than 30 Napa Valley wineries, a leveling that the region had never seen before.

“We were all on high alert. We had this weird PTSD, feeling like something’s going to happen,” said Priyanka French, winemaker at Napa’s Signorello Estate, which burned in 2017. “But it didn’t.”

As the 2021 harvest season approached, anxieties were high. “It’s on your mind now every time you smell a fire in someone’s chimney,” said winemaker Steve Rogstad of Napa’s Brandlin Vineyard. “Six years ago, you wouldn’t have even noticed it. Now, it’s ever-present.”

Priyanka French, a winemaker at Signorello Estate in Napa, said the 2021 harvest made winemaking feel fun again.

Rachel Bujalski/Special to The Chronicle 2020

Weary vintners frantically tried to prepare. Groups spoke out about what they viewed as a broken fire-insurance system for agricultural property owners. Napa locals petitioned their county for the right to hire their own firefighting aircraft. And in vineyards throughout California, people cleared brush, trimmed tree branches, moved fuel sources like propane tanks away from buildings — anything to prevent flames from finding an easy path.

Some vintners took additional steps to mitigate fire risk. Hambrecht, of the Grist Vineyard, led an effort to perform controlled burns in rural areas of the Dry Creek Valley growing region. Over the course of the year, with the approval and supervision of Cal Fire and local firefighters, the group executed five controlled burns, adding up to a total of about 200 acres.

The idea behind these burns, which were practiced regularly by Indigenous people in California, is to allow fire to consume all of the flammable material in an area in a controlled manner, making it less likely that a wildfire would be able to spread there later.

“We feel pretty strongly that these controlled burns work,” Hambrecht said. “It was incredibly empowering. Just sitting back and watching everything around us burn” — which happened in 2021, he added — “is not a position I want to be in again.”

Controlled burns are not yet commonplace in Wine Country, but the idea is gaining more traction with farmers and other property owners. Hambrecht said he hopes more communities will explore the idea by talking to their local firefighting authority.

Not all California wine regions were as fortunate as the Bay Area’s last year. The Caldor Fire threatened the winemaking community of El Dorado County and other parts of the Sierra foothills; though no wineries were destroyed, vintners there fear that their grapes may have been unpleasantly impacted by wildfire smoke.

Winemaker Montse Reece (left) and winery owner Julie Pedroncelli St. John walk through a sea of old Zinfandel vines at Pedroncelli Winery in Geyserville.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Napa and Sonoma counties feared their time had come, too, when a Sept. 23 blaze ignited in an open field in Carneros, near the border of the two counties. Dubbed the Fremont Fire, it was burning near areas that had been engulfed in flames four years earlier. But the worst-case scenario did not materialize. By the next morning, the fire was fully contained. It had burned just 116 acres.

And last year, happily, temperatures remained moderate, allowing producers to pick their grapes leisurely. “It was like a Swiss watch,” said Mark Mazzoni, owner of Zialena Winery in Sonoma County.

Yet winemakers did have to contend with another meteorological problem during the 2021 growing season: drought.

The main effect of this historic drought on California vineyards could be seen in the crop yields. Less water means less energy for grapevines, which leads them to set fewer berries. Many winemakers reported that their 2021 grape hauls were about 20% lighter than normal, though it varied significantly by site.

On Napa’s Mount Veeder, certain sections of the Brandlin Vineyard threw only about half of the crop it normally does, said winemaker Steve Rogstad. Lower grape yields don’t necessarily mean that the wine will suffer; on the contrary, it can sometimes improve quality.

The severity of the drought has strengthened the case for dry-farmed vineyards, said Pedroncelli’s Reece. (There are no official statistics on how many California vineyards follow this method, but one expert has estimated that about 20% of Napa Valley vineyards are dry-farmed.) Dry farming means there is no irrigation providing water to the plants, which receive only the water that falls from the sky or is naturally stored in the ground. Grapevines that have already adapted to this sort of regimen, relying on less water to begin with, fared better in 2021 than irrigated vines, Reece said.

“We’re going to have droughts,” she continued. “In California it’s not going to be raining all the time — I assume we all understand that. Dry-farming looks better and better.”

“It really was a redemption harvest,” winemaker Montse Reece says of the 2021 season.

Jessica Christian/The Chronicle

Still, the parched soils did not detract from the sense of joyful gratitude that permeated the wine industry as its busy season came to a close.

“The concentration of flavors is so intense, like I haven’t seen in years,” Reece said of the nascent 2021 wines. Her Zinfandels are exploding with ripe, luscious deliciousness, a reminder of how great wines from the Pedroncelli vineyards can truly be, she said.

Many winemakers got creative in 2020, repurposing smoke-tainted reds into piquette, grappa, vodka or rosé — making the best of a bad situation, essentially. In 2021, winemakers got to return to making normal wine, the old-fashioned way.

After all, the thrill of harvest season — picking the grapes and making them into wine — is why these professionals got into their business in the first place. “Before we got a hard dose of reality in 2017, my idea of harvest in Napa used to be this euphoric, amazing thing,” said Signorello’s French.

In 2021, finally, she felt some of that euphoria again. “You can see it just in talking to other winemakers here,” French said. “People are excited. We’re actually asking each other, ‘What are your wines tasting like?’”

Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s senior wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley

The post After 4 harrowing years of smoke and fires, Bay Space wineries rejoice in a ‘regular’ harvest appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

• By Kevin Shoesmith
• BBC News

26 September 2022

Image source, Nick Hannam

Image caption,

Chimney sweep Nick Hannam said people were reinstating old fireplaces in response to gas prices

Households are bringing boarded-up fires and stoves back into use to reduce their energy bills, chimney sweeps have said.

One West Yorkshire couple said they had reinstated an old stove, unused since they moved in.

Campaign group Fuel Poverty Action said people were “resorting to all sorts of measures” to stay warm.

Typical household energy bills are being capped by the government at £2,500 a year from 1 October.

Chimney sweeping firm owner Michelle Farrelly said she had seen an increase in people seeking help to return to solid fuel.

She said one in three inquiries now relate to reinstating boarded-up fires or stoves due to rising energy prices.

Mrs Farrelly said: “It’s genuine panic. People are very concerned about how they are going to keep warm this winter. I have not known anything like it.”

The former firefighter, who runs Holderness Chimney Sweep in East Yorkshire with husband Matthew, said people were “burning anything and everything”.

She explained some wood, including material coated in chemicals such as creosote, is unsuitable for burning because it can give off toxic fumes.

Image source, Marie McHale

Image caption,

Marie McHale intends to use the multi-fuel stove to keep warm this winter

The homeowner

Marie McHale, a compliance manager from Castleford, West Yorkshire, said she and her husband recently hired a chimney sweep.

She said: “We moved into the property in late 2018. We have decided to bring the stove back into use to cut down our gas central heating usage.”

Ms McHale said she was deeply concerned about fuel hikes and rising inflation hitting weekly grocery bills.

“It’s pretty dreadful,” she said.

Weighing up the cost of smokeless fuel and wood chips against the price of gas and electricity, Ms McHale is confident they will make a saving.

She said: “At the moment, our gas and electric bill is £456 per month but we worked out we’d be paying about £800 per month this winter.

“By using the multi-fuel stove we can warm up pretty much the whole of the downstairs, reducing the amount we pay for gas.”

Nick Hannam, owner of Wakefield-based Cosysweep, reported a similar picture.

He said: “I am getting lots of phone calls.

“Before, fires and stoves were decorative. Now people are bringing them back into use because of the high cost of gas.”

Alex Leonard, owner of Hull-based Leonards and Airlievac, said: “We are taking bookings a month in advance with people saying they are opening up, and using, fires again.

“They are doing so because of the high cost of gas. A lot of people are going on to solid fuel to save money on gas.”

He urged people to hire a National Association of Chimney Sweeps (NACS) member to carry out checks bringing fires and stoves back into use.

“It’s possible that a cap has been put on the chimney,” he said. “You could have a bird nest or a dead bird in the flue.”

Image source, Getty Images / Richard A Lock

Image caption,

Many households are turning to solid fuel to heat their homes, say chimney sweeps

A spokeswoman for campaign group Fuel Poverty Action added alternatives to switching on central heating “should be unnecessary”.

The government has confirmed households will be given a one-off £400 discount on their fuel bills from October.

Further payments of £300 to pensioner households and £150 to disabled people will also go ahead.

The post Price of residing: Households bringing boarded-up fires again into use appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Two people jumped out of an apartment complex window in the Tenderloin neighborhood of San Francisco to escape a fire that was spreading in their unit on Monday. One of them was seriously injured and taken to a hospital burn center, officials said.

That terrifying blaze was probably caused by an overheated e-scooter battery that firefighters later spotted plugged in to a charger near the unit’s front door, according to Capt. Jonathan Baxter, a spokesman for the San Francisco Fire Department. It was the 24th fire in San Francisco this year that has been linked to rechargeable batteries, he told me.

The city isn’t alone. Fires associated with rechargeable batteries have had a devastating effect in New York City, ripping through buildings including public housing complexes and luxury towers — and have killed more than 20 people there since 2021.

“Fortunately, we’re not seeing it to that same degree here in San Francisco,” Baxter told me. “However, one fire is one too many.”

Battery-related fires have increased steadily in San Francisco as e-bikes and e-scooters have proliferated in recent years. According to the Fire Department, there have been 202 battery fires in the city since 2017, killing one person and injuring eight. Fifty-eight of them broke out last year, up from 13 in 2017, and this year is on a pace to equal or exceed 2022.

The figures include fires linked to rechargeable batteries used in e-scooters and e-bikes (the most common culprits) as well as electric cars, motorcycles and skateboards.

While dozens of structures have been damaged, a majority of the fires have erupted at homeless encampments, where, Baxter told me, people are probably tinkering with electric scooters and other vehicles in ways that make them more likely to burst into flames.

As my colleagues in New York have reported, off-market, refurbished, damaged or improperly charged lithium-ion batteries can explode, igniting fast-moving fires that are difficult to extinguish. Lithium-ion batteries are also used in computers and cellphones, but so-called micro-mobility vehicle batteries are bigger and tend to be damaged by a lot of wear and tear, experts say.

“All it takes is for one small battery cell to be defective, overcharged or damaged, and a tremendous amount of energy is released in the form of heat and toxic flammable gases all at once,” Daniel Murray, the New York Fire Department’s chief of hazmat operations, told The New York Times.

E-bikes and e-scooters are less regulated than electric cars, which start fewer fires even though they require far more energy. Hoping to get ahead of the fire problem, New York will ban the sale of e-bikes and similar devices that do not meet recognized safety standards, starting in September; it’s the first American city to do that.

Officials in San Francisco are warning residents not to charge e-bikes or e-scooters while they are asleep, or to use any charging device other than those made by the bike or scooter’s manufacturer. And they say that if a battery fire does erupt in your home, don’t try to put it out yourself — you probably can’t. Instead, evacuate right away and call 911.

Read more e-bike and e-scooter safety tips from the National Fire Protection Association.

Where we’re traveling

Today’s tip comes from Luann Chou, who lives in Redondo Beach. Luann recommends San Juan Capistrano:

“If you’re adventurous, you can take the train in via the Pacific Surfliner (operated by Amtrak), which lands you right where you want to be, Los Rios Historical District, an easy walking area filled with shops, restaurants and even an adorable teahouse. My favorite spot is Five Vines Wine Bar, which is run by a family of five. You can create your own flights, and they have a wine club with wonderfully unique wines. They have an extensive food menu, too. On your way out, make sure you pick up some bread at FKN Bread.”

Tell us about your favorite places to visit in California. Email your suggestions to CAtoday@nytimes.com. We’ll be sharing more in upcoming editions of the newsletter.

Tell us

What are the best books about California or the part of the state where you live? What fiction or nonfiction would you put on a Golden State reading list, and why?

Email us at CAtoday@nytimes.com with your suggestions. Please include your name and the city where you live.

And before you go, some good news

The name says it all.

The Chaotic Singles Party is a monthly event where singles can meet other singles, but only if they bring a random Tinder match as their plus one.

The concept was created by Cassidy Davis, who struggled with dating in Los Angeles during the pandemic. On Valentine’s Day in 2022, she instructed her single female friends to invite random men from their dating apps to her house for a party. Then she decided to invite 65 men off Tinder.

Davis uploaded videos of the party to TikTok, and they went viral. She has been throwing the events ever since.

The parties offer relief from using dating apps — a kind of solace that more and more people are seeking. At one recent event in New York, romantic hopefuls wearing white name tags sipped drinks and almost screamed in conversation as pop music blared.

Godfrey Butler, 26, an I.T. field technician, arrived alone after discovering the event on Eventbrite two days earlier. “I was trying to be a brave soldier,” he said, adding that his dating life had been in a “rough patch.”

The post Batteries in E-Bikes and Different Gadgets Are Sparking Fires in San Francisco appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

Smoke from Canadian wildfires is unsettling communities in the Midwest and Northeast United States, prompting changes in activities for children and warnings for adults.

New York City recorded its highest level of air pollution ever. Officials in both countries are urging affected residents to stay indoors and wear N95 masks outdoors.

Why we wrote this

A story that focuses on that

The severity of Canada’s wildfire smoke has startled the United States and could prompt eastern communities to learn safety lessons from the fire-prone west.

Wildfires can regenerate natural landscapes and are common in Canada. But it’s been a tough start to the fire season. Although it’s difficult to directly attribute individual fires to climate change, much of Canada had a warm and dry spring — a combination made more likely by rising global temperatures.

Exposure to massive wildfires “used to be something of a one-time thing,” says Keith Bein, an air quality researcher at the University of California, Davis. “Now it happens more often and almost every season.”

Veteran firefighters in the west may be able to share their lessons with their friends on the east coast. Preparation and public awareness are key, they say.

Wildfire Smoke Ready Week is held in Missoula, Montana every year. And in California, there’s a pilot program for public “clean air centers” for people at risk of smoking — similar to “cooling centers” that provide shelter from extreme heat.

Smoke from Canadian wildfires has shrouded the New York City skyline in a Halloween haze. The bitter air has reached the Great Lakes region of the United States and the mid-Atlantic, prompting public health warnings.

New York City recorded its highest-ever air pollution levels, surpassing levels experienced by San Francisco during the 2018 California wildfires. And the air in the country’s capital was rated “very unhealthy” on Thursday.

The severity of the smoke has startled communities far from fire-prone western North America, raising questions about local preparedness and safety. Here’s a look at the scope of the fires and warnings.

Why we wrote this

A story that focuses on that

The severity of Canada’s wildfire smoke has startled the United States and could prompt eastern communities to learn safety lessons from the fire-prone west.

How unusual are the fires in Canada and what to expect for the upcoming fire season?

Wildfires can regenerate natural landscapes and are common in Canada. But a tough start to the fire season has burned 9.4 million hectares in recent weeks — about 15 times the 10-year average, Reuters reports. The sparks are due to a mixture of lightning and possible human causes.

The scale of coast-to-coast fires — and the speed at which they spread — has been something unusual since at least the 1980s, says Daniel Perrakis, a fire researcher with the Department of Natural Resources of Canada. “There’s no way we can get enough firefighters to fight all these fires,” he adds. “It could rain next week, but possibly months from now.”

Ontario Department of Natural Resources and Forestry/The Canadian Press/AP

Show caption
Hide caption

Canada’s wildfire season got off to a rough start — with fires blazing across the country — partly due to a warm and dry spring. Here, on June 4, 2023, the Chapleau 3 forest fire burns in the province of Ontario.

“We’re seeing more and more of these fires because of climate change,” Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted on Wednesday. Although its complexity makes it difficult to directly attribute individual fires to climate change, a 2022 United Nations report lists it as one of several factors increasing the risk of wildfires around the world. And much of Canada has had a warm and dry spring – a combination made more likely by rising global temperatures.

In contrast, through July, the U.S. “expects normal to below average fire potential in much of the Southwest, California and Colorado due to snow cover and a wet spring,” says Nick Nauslar, predictive services meteorologist at the National Interagency Fire Center. The Northwest, he adds in an email, “probably has above-average potential.”

How do communities deal with smoke?

Thousands of Canadians were evacuated. The wildfires are also worrying Americans throughout the Midwest and Northeast, causing school closures and early layoffs in New Jersey and delays in city flights from Washington to Boston. Officials in both countries are urging affected residents to stay indoors and wear N95 masks outdoors.

Andres Kudacki/AP

Show caption
Hide caption

On June 7, 2023, people wearing masks walk in New York. Health officials urged people to stay indoors or wear masks to protect themselves in cities hit by wildfire smoke.

As air quality in New York City reached “dangerous” levels on Wednesday, Commissioner for Emergency Management Zach Iscol called for solidarity.

“If you are young and healthy, please stop by your neighbors,” he said at a news conference. “Make sure they have the information they need to keep them safe.”

In Toronto, Samantha Green says that when you step outside, “it smells like we’re standing next to a campfire.” The family doctor calls the wildfire smoke a “complex soup of air pollutants.”

Regarding high-efficiency particulate air filters, she says: “People should stay indoors and make sure the indoor air is clean by closing the windows and using a HEPA filter if you have one – or at least making sure they have a good quality filter.” have.” says Dr. Green, President-elect of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment.

Experts recommend citizens check local air quality alerts for help determining their daily activities, such as whether they should go jogging outside. Canadians can see their city’s status using the Federal Air Quality Health Index, while Americans can enter their zip code into AirNow.gov.

Even with US firefighting help, it could take weeks or longer to put out the fires in Quebec and beyond. Meanwhile, changes in wind patterns will be a factor determining air quality.

Julio Cortez/AP

Show caption
Hide caption

Joggers trot along the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool on June 8, 2023 in Washington as the sun rises over the Washington Monument and a thick layer of smoke from wildfires rises.

What are the possible solutions to contain the smoke from wildfires?

Exposure to massive wildfires “used to be something of a one-time thing,” says Keith Bein, an air quality researcher at the University of California, Davis. “Now it happens more often and almost every season.”

and region. He’s been answering questions from friends on the east coast about fire. This informal exchange of knowledge suggests the rest of the country could learn from fire veterans in the West.

Preparation and public awareness are key, western wildfire experts say.

“The worst time to respond to a smoke event is when you’re in it,” says Sarah Coefield, air quality specialist with the Missoula City-County Health Department in Montana. Her community hosts an annual Wildfire Smoke Ready Week inspired by one in Washington state.

“We’re trying to kind of flood the airwaves in early summer,” adds Ms. Coefield. Then, “locals start thinking more about the upcoming fire season — but it’s not here yet, so they have time to prepare.” She also directs people to MontanaWildfireSmoke.org for more tips on how to prepare, including how to assemble a do-it-yourself fan and filter combo.

Another idea under development – public “clean air centers” for people at risk of smoking – is similar to the way “cooling centers” provide protection from extreme heat. California has begun investing in these centers as part of a pilot program, upgrading ventilation systems and buying portable air purifiers for buildings like libraries.

The post Wildfire smoke: Canadian fires present want for US security readiness appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.

An ailing San Francisco start-up has fired 250 of its 900 staff just five months after it was hailed for moving to a permanent four day working week.

Bolt, which manufactures payment software, announced the layoffs in an email sent to staffers on Wednesday by new CEO Maju Kuruvilla, according to SFGate.

He was vague about the exact reasons for the layoffs, hinted that Bolt was losing money, and didn’t mention whether letting staff have a three day weekend was to blame.

‘To laser focus on our core business and products, we will be prioritizing our roadmap and making several structural changes,’ Kuruvilla wrote. ‘Unfortunately, this includes reducing the size of our workforce and parting ways with some incredibly talented people on our team as of today.’

‘The leadership team and I have made the decision to secure our financial position, extend our runway, and reach profitability with the money we have already raised,’ he added.

Bolt CEO Maju Kuruvilla, pictured, laid off 250 of his firm’s 900 staff Wednesday

Bolt, a Silicon Valley-based tech startup that made headlines for moving to a permanent four-day work week, announced Thursday they were laying off over 250 employees

Many of those laid-off had just been given pay rises a few weeks ago. They watched their co-workers Slack accounts disappear over the course of the day the firings were announced to see who’d been culled.

Former CEO Ryan Breslow announced last September that the company would be moving to a four-day work week to keep staff happy.

‘What’s the rationale? Work is changing and the biggest obstacle we have to face is burnout,’ he wrote at the time.

‘The four day workweek speaks to a shift in people’s working styles – namely, that if you can get your work completed from Monday to Thursday, then there should be no latent expectation that Friday is time on,’ he continued. ‘Instead, it can be time off – a period to rest, recover, engage with loved ones, think creatively and all the other things that enliven us.’

Breslow, 27, stepped down in February to become its executive chairman and promoted Kuruvilla to replace him.

The payments company, launched in 2014, secured over $963million in venture capital after a $355million funding round in mid-January put the company’s valuation at $11billion.

Former CEO Ryan Breslow announced last September that the company would be moving to a four-day work week

Breslow, 27, stepped down in February to become its executive chairman and promoted Kuruvilla to replace him

However, the company has run recent problems, as they are currently entangled in a lawsuit from its biggest customer, Authentic Brand Group – who own Brooks Brothers, Forever 21, and Reebok – which claimed Bolt’s tech doesn’t work as promised.

The company also recently provided loans to employees, allowing them to buy more shares in the company’s stock, Forbes reported.

A Bolt spokesperson claims that the number of employees who did that and were laid off was ‘in the single digits’ and the value of those loans was under $200,000.

Several firms have begun experimenting with a four day working week, after it was claimed doing so does not harm productivity, and that it can boost staff retention.

Bolt was one of the highest-profile firms to make the move. Its bosses have yet to give any indication of whether they plan to reinstate a traditional Monday-to-Friday working week as the firm tightens its belt.

The post Struggling funds start-up Bolt fires a THIRD of its 900 employees at San Francisco HQ appeared first on DAILY SAN FRANCISCO BAY NEWS.