CalFire estimated the fire temperature reached about 2,000 degrees for 45 seconds, incinerating 140 plastic grape-picker macrobins stacked in front of the cave and burning into the asphalt paving and concrete retaining wall around the portals. The fire was so hot it melted polyvinyl chloride (PVC) piping buried a couple of feet below the paving. But the heavy wooden doors at the mouth of the portals survived, protecting all that was inside.
“I’ve been telling people to go over their insurance policy, and there are four or five things you should really look at,” Ryan Waugh, owner and winemaker for Waugh Family Wines, said. Read more here, from the North Bay Business Journal.