Many years ago the Rutherford Volunteer Fire Dept outgrew their fire station in “downtown” Rutherford and was in need of additional space. And since flooding would sometimes hamper the trucks from getting to the Eastern side of the valley, a additional sub-station on the Silverado Trail was needed. Davie, an Assistant Fire Chief in the Dept, approached the brothers about offering space to temporarily house the fire engines. We all agreed and a simple building was built about 100 feet south of our winery to house 2 fire trucks.
During this time, Pina Vineyard Management planted 3 small blocks of vineyard on the property. The closest is just above the winery. These blocks fall in the Rutherford sub-appellation of Napa Valley. When the time came to decide on a vineyard name for the label, we brainstormed lots of possibilities and eventually decided on “Firehouse Vineyard”. Stealing a line from Abe Lincoln; “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this”. After all, the family has a long history of fire fighting. Uncles Al & Joe served in the Rutherford fire dept for many years before brother Davie & cousin Frankie became members. Uncle Frank & brother John were both Captains in the St. Helena Volunteer Fire Dept. Brother Larry’s son-in-law David & David’s father Jim are both currently in the St. Helena Fire Dept.
And although he was never a member of a fire dept, our dad did some firefighting, too. He spent lots of time traveling the area and occasionally happened on fires in their early stages. In the early 80’s we had an arsonist setting fires in the Napa Valley. He had a very clever way of starting them as he drove down the road, without even stopping. I better not give the details of how he did it; it might give some of you pyros out there ideas. Brother Larry recalls the day that dad spotted several small fires by the Silverado Trail. He was able to put all of them out but one. The last fire, at the site of the current Miner Winery, was a bit bigger than the others. Dad raced back the ½ mile to our house, grabbed some wet burlap sacks and my brother Larry, and together they returned and put it out.
But the arsonist also had a clever master plan. It seems that the Silverado Trail fires were intended to lure the fire fighting resources away from the fires he was yet to start in the areas of Soda Canyon and Atlas Peak, near Silverado Country Club. Unfortunately, he was very successful with those fires. The fires started on June 22nd, 1981 burned 23,600 acres and 65 structures. The fires blackened a path over 10 miles long - all the way from the Silverado Country Club to the ridge above Pina Cellars.
In 2007, the Rutherford Fire Dept built a nice new sub-station less than a mile north of us, but the Firehouse Vineyard name stayed.
Over the years, the family firefighters collected many stories. I asked Davie to retell one of my favorites, and here it is in his words:
While this might not sound funny to you it had us in stitches.
I have been on the Rutherford Volunteer Fire Dept. for 20 years. In my twenty years I have seen horrible things, things that will stay in my mind for forever and some that still get me to laugh out loud.
One that still gets my funny bone was a car off the road on Oakville grade. As the name implies the road is very steep and has a corresponding steep hillside below it. A lady had lost control of her car and went over the side. The only way anyone knew she was there was that she had crawled up the bank and was waving her hand as best she could to get attention. She was in fairly good shape for having gone 200 feet down a steep bank and crawled back up. We sent her on her way to the hospital and stood by as a tow truck arrived to pull the car up to the road. There was also another wreck down the bank that had never been removed. This caused the tow truck driver no end to problems trying to bring the new car wreck up separate from the old wreck. He finally moved his tow truck a little further up the road to get a better angle on separating the new wreck from the old wreck. As he pulled on the car it again got tangled with the old wreck and he continued to pull. All of a sudden everyone was aware of something not going right. The driver had put wheel chocks behind the rear wheels of the tow truck, but hadn’t set the parking brake. Once the tires started to climb over the chocks there was no stopping the tow truck. The driver took one step back and watched as the tow truck went right past him gaining speed as it hurtled down the steep bank toward the car below. It crashed into the new wreck, went over the top of it and ended in a heap below. Now there were 6 firefighters standing there in shocked silence and couldn’t believe our eyes at what just happened. In the silence came a voice from the Incident Commander talking on the radio to dispatch “I think we need another tow truck”. That awakened us to how this might sound when he tried to explain how we lost the one we had. We were all rolling on the ground laughing. The tow truck driver removed his gloves and sat down on the side of the road and waited. We felt sorry for him, but couldn’t help ourselves.
I also don’t know how the insurance agent separated the damage to the car from going off the road and the damage of a tow truck crashing into and going over the top of it after the fact. Thank goodness no one was hurt seriously and eventually both vehicles were brought to the road. Surprising enough they drove the tow truck back to the shop.
I’m still chuckling.
Davie
During this time, Pina Vineyard Management planted 3 small blocks of vineyard on the property. The closest is just above the winery. These blocks fall in the Rutherford sub-appellation of Napa Valley. When the time came to decide on a vineyard name for the label, we brainstormed lots of possibilities and eventually decided on “Firehouse Vineyard”. Stealing a line from Abe Lincoln; “It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this”. After all, the family has a long history of fire fighting. Uncles Al & Joe served in the Rutherford fire dept for many years before brother Davie & cousin Frankie became members. Uncle Frank & brother John were both Captains in the St. Helena Volunteer Fire Dept. Brother Larry’s son-in-law David & David’s father Jim are both currently in the St. Helena Fire Dept.
And although he was never a member of a fire dept, our dad did some firefighting, too. He spent lots of time traveling the area and occasionally happened on fires in their early stages. In the early 80’s we had an arsonist setting fires in the Napa Valley. He had a very clever way of starting them as he drove down the road, without even stopping. I better not give the details of how he did it; it might give some of you pyros out there ideas. Brother Larry recalls the day that dad spotted several small fires by the Silverado Trail. He was able to put all of them out but one. The last fire, at the site of the current Miner Winery, was a bit bigger than the others. Dad raced back the ½ mile to our house, grabbed some wet burlap sacks and my brother Larry, and together they returned and put it out.
But the arsonist also had a clever master plan. It seems that the Silverado Trail fires were intended to lure the fire fighting resources away from the fires he was yet to start in the areas of Soda Canyon and Atlas Peak, near Silverado Country Club. Unfortunately, he was very successful with those fires. The fires started on June 22nd, 1981 burned 23,600 acres and 65 structures. The fires blackened a path over 10 miles long - all the way from the Silverado Country Club to the ridge above Pina Cellars.
In 2007, the Rutherford Fire Dept built a nice new sub-station less than a mile north of us, but the Firehouse Vineyard name stayed.
Over the years, the family firefighters collected many stories. I asked Davie to retell one of my favorites, and here it is in his words:
While this might not sound funny to you it had us in stitches.
I have been on the Rutherford Volunteer Fire Dept. for 20 years. In my twenty years I have seen horrible things, things that will stay in my mind for forever and some that still get me to laugh out loud.
One that still gets my funny bone was a car off the road on Oakville grade. As the name implies the road is very steep and has a corresponding steep hillside below it. A lady had lost control of her car and went over the side. The only way anyone knew she was there was that she had crawled up the bank and was waving her hand as best she could to get attention. She was in fairly good shape for having gone 200 feet down a steep bank and crawled back up. We sent her on her way to the hospital and stood by as a tow truck arrived to pull the car up to the road. There was also another wreck down the bank that had never been removed. This caused the tow truck driver no end to problems trying to bring the new car wreck up separate from the old wreck. He finally moved his tow truck a little further up the road to get a better angle on separating the new wreck from the old wreck. As he pulled on the car it again got tangled with the old wreck and he continued to pull. All of a sudden everyone was aware of something not going right. The driver had put wheel chocks behind the rear wheels of the tow truck, but hadn’t set the parking brake. Once the tires started to climb over the chocks there was no stopping the tow truck. The driver took one step back and watched as the tow truck went right past him gaining speed as it hurtled down the steep bank toward the car below. It crashed into the new wreck, went over the top of it and ended in a heap below. Now there were 6 firefighters standing there in shocked silence and couldn’t believe our eyes at what just happened. In the silence came a voice from the Incident Commander talking on the radio to dispatch “I think we need another tow truck”. That awakened us to how this might sound when he tried to explain how we lost the one we had. We were all rolling on the ground laughing. The tow truck driver removed his gloves and sat down on the side of the road and waited. We felt sorry for him, but couldn’t help ourselves.
I also don’t know how the insurance agent separated the damage to the car from going off the road and the damage of a tow truck crashing into and going over the top of it after the fact. Thank goodness no one was hurt seriously and eventually both vehicles were brought to the road. Surprising enough they drove the tow truck back to the shop.
I’m still chuckling.
Davie
3 comments:
Great story about the tow truck. I hope the driver got to keep his job. The story behind the naming of the Firehouse vineyard designation is great fun to know. I love knowing word and name origins. It is often quite surprising to find out how much history is hiding just behind a word or name we use every day. I would love to hear about other vineyard names or perhaps about your family name... Pina? I have heard it pronounced a couple of different ways and sometimes shown with the squiggle above.
The night of the 1981 fire is fresh in my mind. I was just a little girl, but I remember sitting in the parking lot of the winery watching the flames. There was a huge pine tree up above the building that was one of Grandma's favorites. The whole family stood there and watched it burn. We prayed that the fire breaks put in by the firefighters would hold and the winery would not be affected.
I'll see if I can find the pictures we have of the ridge above the winery on fire.
Yes, the fire changed the appearance of the ridgeline beyond beyond burnt brush & grass. There were several tall Digger Pines on the ridge. Some survived, some didn't and some would eventually fall, months later.
Hey BocceJoe, I'll dedicate a whole post to your question about the family name. The title will be: Piña vs Pina: The Typewriter Years.
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