Being under the threat of fire danger is nothing new for residents in the Calistoga area. While heavy gray smoke from the Pickett Fire was seen from town, many tried to go on with their daily lives.

It was an active day for fire crews in the air and on the ground as they tackled the blaze just east of Calistoga. Residents in this area have seen fires like this one numerous times in just the last ten years.

"I've been up here 30-something years, so I've seen quite a bit," said Matt Gacso, the owner of August Briggs Winery. "You just get used to it now."

Gacso's winery is in downtown Calistoga. He says he stayed on top of his Nixle alerts but just tried to go on like business as usual.

"It's just a state of being up here now," he said. "I was telling somebody in the tasting room we had a good two-year run, and now it's back again."

When residents see fires like the Pickett Fire, it automatically takes them back to 2020 when the Glass Fire forced widespread evacuations.

"Just reminded of that day," said Jorge Montanez. "I literally went to sleep for like an hour or two, and I woke up and my dad told me to look out the window."

Luckily, this time, they didn't feel like the fire was going to get anywhere near town.

"Definitely, during the Glass Fire, it was really scary," Montanez said. "I feel like it was a lot closer and since it was a mandatory evacuation, I was a little bit scared."

Cal Fire and Napa County Fire say that because of a history of fires in the area, they have worked to create fire access roads on the mountainside. Overnight, they will utilize a valuable resource that only became available a couple of years ago.

"For tonight, we have 3 night flying type 1 helicopters that are going to continue making water drops," said Erick Hernandez

Cal-Fire LNU and Napa County Fire.

Gacso says he gets grapes from a vineyard near where the fire started and worries what the smoke may do to this year's crop. The good news is that no homes were burned and no one was injured in the blaze. The only nerves that may have been rattled were those visiting from out of the area.

"The thing that scares me is the tourists because they don't know what to do," Gasco said. "You can see they're walking around kind of scurrying, whether they should leave town and it's not good for business."