The first radio dispatch reporting a vegetation fire on a day in late May put the blaze in the hills on the eastern rim of the Napa Valley, an area that had burned just five years ago in a massive firestorm.

From his office, Division Chief Brian Ham with the Napa County Fire Department clicked on the video feed from a wildfire camera perched atop a hill overlooking the Napa Valley. A thin gray smoke column was rising from the bottom of a drainage.

Fire tends to race uphill — especially when buffeted by winds. Ham jumped in his truck. His colleagues first at the scene were already calling for reinforcements.

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