Will Gross (center), who lost his home in a fire two years ago and found shelter and assistance at the Napa County Fairgrounds in Calistoga, returned yesterday as a volunteer. Picture by Paige St. John, Los Angeles Times
Note – A total of 13 fairgrounds–in Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, Sutter, Marin, Sutter, Nevada Orange and Kern counties–are serving as emergency shelters during this fire emergency.
By Paige St. John
Two years ago, during the Valley fire, the Napa County Fairgrounds in Calistoga, Calif., was the scene of a tent city of evacuees, along with massage therapists, puppet artists, drum circles and food catered by the best of Napa Valley.
On Monday, smoke from the nearby Tubbs fire left the same evacuation shelter all but deserted. But it didn’t stop determined volunteers from showing up to give what they could.
Among them was Will Gross of Cobb.
“I lost my house in the Valley fire. These guys helped me out, so I thought I’d help them,” Gross said as he scooped watermelon and cantaloupe into a fruit salad in the shelter’s kitchen.
He worked beside two professional cooks – Ed Burke, the food service director for Calistoga joint unified schools, and Andy Wild, special events director for the fabled Culinary Institute of America, which has an academy near Napa.
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