A wildfire broke off of Wild Horse Valley Road Saturday, spewing white and gray columns of smoke visible from downtown Napa. By nighttime, orange flames were visible along the ridge line east of Napa.

As of 9 p.m., the fire has burned about 1,000 acres along the Napa and Solano county line, said CalFire spokesman Dan Sendek, who could not confirm any property losses.

The origin of the fire is unknown, CalFire said.

Earlier in the day, CalFire Battalion Chief Ed Shew said he expected to spend the night and the next few days fighting the blaze.

As he spoke, crews were being staged to attack the fire from different fronts around and above Lake Madigan.

Shew could not predict how big the fire would get, as winds drove the fire eastward toward Solano County.

“We’ll have to wait and see what the wind does to this,” said Shew, as air tankers dropped fire retardant on the hillsides.

To complicate matters, local CalFire crews and equipment have been dispatched to fires in Santa Cruz and Humboldt counties, he said.

“So we’re just really thin right now,” said Shew, noting that lightning has ignited close to 200 fires throughout Northern California recently.

Neighbors watched the fire from a distance as fire crews and equipment, including water tenders, fire engines and bulldozers arrived to the scene.

Sue Cuffman said a friend called her to let her know smoke was in her neighborhood.

That’s when she drove to her front gate and saw flames everywhere, some of them up to 20 feet tall.

“It was unbelievable,” she said.

Robert Nicol, another resident on Wild Horse Valley Road, said he too saw many flames.

“It’s kind of spooky,” he said as a fire crew hosed down a tree nearby.

Ronnie Hernandez, head caretaker at Kenzo Estate, a 4,000-acre ranch that includes a winery, said the property’s four horses were rounded up in one of the barns.

“It was really hot around here,” he said.

A PG&E serviceman on Wild Horse Valley Road said he turned power off to 31 customers after a power pole burned down.

Coincidentally, the Atlas Peak fire which burned 23,600 acres within 24 hours began June 22, 1981