California wildfire rips through Napa Valley wine country during harvest, forces hospital evacuation.

 Extract from ABC News

Posted Yesterday at 7:54pm, updated Yesterday at 8:46pm

Time lapse shows Glass Fire burning through Napa Valley, forcing the evacuation of patients and workers from a hospital and residents from hundreds of homes.

A major wildfire in northern California is threatening to destroy homes and vineyards as it pushes towards the state's famed wine-growing valley.

Key points:

• Named the Glass Fire, it has so far scorched 800 hectares of land
• The fire is threatening the wine region of the Napa Valley
• A hospital has been evacuated along with another 600 homes

Fire crews have scrambled to try and contain the fire which started on Sunday morning (local time), about 120 kilometres north of San Francisco.

Strong winds pushed the wildfire — named the Glass Fire — across more than 800 hectares of land in the Napa Valley, one of California's major wine regions.

The blaze began midway through the traditional grape-harvesting period in the valley.

The area's 475 wineries account for just 4 per cent of the state's total annual grape harvest but half of the retail value of all California wines sold, according to the Napa Valley Vintners trade group.

The fire was within 2 kilometres of the Adventist Health St. Helena Hospital, which had to evacuate all 55 patients.

It was the second wildfire-related evacuation of the 151-bed hospital in a month, after a massive cluster of lightning-sparked blazes swept several counties north of the San Francisco Bay region in August.

Hospital spokeswoman Linda Williams said all patients were safely evacuated by midday on Sunday.

"We had ambulances lined up from all over the Bay area," she said.

The Glass Fire in California has destroyed building's near one of the state's most popular wine regions.(Jose Carlos Fajardo: Bay Area News Group via AP)

Around 600 homes were also evacuated on Sunday, with authorities issuing warnings to another 1,400 residents to be ready to leave at a moment's notice.

CalFire, the state's fire protection department, said a fire weather watch would start on Monday across most of Southern California with hot, gusty winds and low humidity predicted.

California wildfires have scorched around 1.5 million hectares in the first nine months of 2020, a new yearly record for the state.

The fires have claimed 26 lives and destroyed more than 7,000 structures.

There has been more deaths and destruction in the neighbouring states of Oregon and Washington.

Reuters