Calistoga-area vineyard employee charged with beginning 2025 Pickett Fire in Napa County

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The Napa County District Attorney’s workplace has filed felony expenses towards a Calistoga-area vineyard employee accused of beginning the Pickett Fire, which a 12 months in the past raced up the flanks of Howell Mountain east of Napa Valley, menacing rural properties for days and ruining among the area’s prized grape crop.

Prosecutors say Juan Luis Gutierrez Marfil, who was doing work for Hundred Acre Wines proprietor Jayson Woodbridge, in line with a spokesperson for the corporate, disposed of sizzling ashes right into a burn pile, which ignited the fireplace on Aug. 21, 2025.

The blaze burned 10 sq. miles over 17 days, forcing evacuations, and destroying one house and 4 outbuildings. A variety of wine grape growers deserted their vintages resulting from smoke-tainted fruit they blamed on the fireplace.

Gutierrez Marfil, 45, of Napa, was charged Wednesday, Aug. 26, with recklessly inflicting the fireplace of a construction or forest. The felony grievance features a particular allegation of committing an offense that triggered greater than $6 million in losses.

Napa County has estimated the monetary loss to the native wine business because of the Pickett Fire at $56 million, plus $1.7 million for different agricultural commodities and farm constructions.

Prosecutors stated within the grievance that Gutierrez Marfil admitted to Cal Fire legislation enforcement of disposing sizzling ashes right into a burn pile, sparking the fireplace. The origin level, in line with Cal Fire, was situated inside properties owned by Hundred Acre Wines.

The Press Democrat was unable to succeed in Gutierrez Marfil for remark Thursday. It isn’t clear whether or not he has authorized illustration.

The Hundred Acre Wines spokesman, Sam Singer, stated Marfil was a contractor working for Woodbridge and never a vineyard worker.

In March, Gutierrez Marfil was cited by a Cal Fire enforcement officer for 2 felonies and two misdemeanors associated to the Pickett Fire. The DA’s workplace finally determined to deliver a narrower vary of expenses.

Gutierrez Marfil is scheduled to be arraigned by Napa County Superior Court Judge Kecia Lind on Sept. 9.

The fireplace broke out at a time when Cal Fire had suspended residential burn permits — a typical summertime transfer — except property house owners first obtained a proper exemption. Cal Fire, citing its open investigation, has declined to reveal any data indicating whether or not such an exemption existed on this case.

Woodbridge, twenty years in the past, in June 2005, was cited by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District for conducting open burns in violation of district rules. A Napa decide entered a judgment that August, compelling Woodbridge to pay $4,750 for the infraction.

The Pickett Fire sparked on the outskirts of Calistoga on a 100-plus-degree afternoon. Gusty winds swept the flames by rugged hillsides and canyons alongside the scar of the 2020 Glass Fire, forcing evacuations from Calistoga by the Palisades and Swartz canyons in direction of Pope Valley.

Some 2,700 emergency personnel spent 17 days containing the fireplace, which finally scorched greater than 6,800 acres.

Responding to the information of felony expenses, Elton Slone, president and CEO of Robert Craig Winery in Napa Valley, which misplaced most of its 2025 crop, stated he felt no “sense of justice whatsoever, just heaps of frustration.”

Smoke harm from the Pickett Fire worn out the vineyard’s whole Howell Mountain crop, Slone stated. “That’s 70% of our revenue and our identity at Robert Craig,” he added.

The vines have been simply recovering from the 2020 Glass Fire. That fireplace, for which a trigger was by no means decided, triggered better harm however the enterprise had higher insurance coverage protection on the time. Before 2020, “terrific coverage” price $40,000, Slone stated. Now the enterprise pays $320,000, and the coverage doesn’t cowl fireplace harm.

There’s repercussions for the enterprise’ loans and contours of credit score, too.

“It’s been a huge burden on our business over the last year. There’s no describing what it’s like,” Slone stated.

Earlier this month, a bunch of winemakers — not together with Slone—  sued Woodbridge and his firm over their ruined 2025 harvests, and numerous different Howell Mountain wine companies are in settlement discussions with the vintner.

Woodbridge has described spending the primary evening of the fireplace keeping off flames bearing down on his Pickett Road house and vineyard.

The ignition level for the Pickett Fire, initially recognized by Cal Fire as 2343 Pickett Road, lies inside adjoining properties owned by Woodbridge’s Hundred Acre Wines firm.

State officers reportedly investigated numerous potential causes, together with the disposal of ashes on Woodbridge’s winery.

Singer had beforehand stated a contractor engaged on an out of doors fire was curing bricks the day of the fireplace and had thought the ashes had been correctly extinguished. Attorneys for Hundred Acre Wines had additionally requested Cal Fire to think about a battery inside an on-site trailer as a doable ignition supply.

“The Napa County Deputy DA has investigated the Pickett Fire and found no basis to file a criminal case against the Hundred Acre affiliates that own and operate the Pickett Road property,” Singer stated in an e-mail Thursday. “We agree with that assessment and are pleased we have been cleared by the DA’s office.”

The district legal professional’s workplace declined to touch upon Singer’s framing of the choice to cost Gutierrez Marfil.

“This doesn’t change our case at all,” stated Daniel Reidy, a St. Helena legal professional representing the winemakers suing Woodbridge and Hundred Acre Wines. “These charges affirm that the fire was started on Woodbridge’s property by one of his workers.”

Reidy famous that the district legal professional’s findings don’t relieve Woodbridge of potential civil legal responsibility.

You can attain Phil Barber at 707-521-5263 or phil.barber@pressdemocrat.com. On X (Twitter) @Skinny_Post. You can attain senior reporter Marisa Endicott at 707-521-5470 or marisa.endicott@pressdemocrat.com. On X @marisaendicott and Facebook @InYourCornerTPD.