Hi All,

I'm not sure how far this news has circulated, but I wanted to let you know there is a huge fire near the Geysers Geothermal field. It started on Friday night of unknown origins and quickly took off yesterday and today it was much worse. I've had ash fall at my house in Santa Rosa, about 30 miles away and its much heavier in places like Windsor and Healdsburg.

The area around Middletown and Cobb Mountain where the geothermal plants are located is heavily forrested and at this time of the year, tinder dry. We have been having a heat wave for days with very low humidity and off shore winds, which have added to this sad situation.

A few weeks ago when Don and I were in the area, Don said, "if a fire ever gets started in here, they will play hell in getting it out."

Petra

• Geysers Fire News Report