CAL FIRE serves and safeguards the people and protects the property and resources of California. Beyond its wildland firefighting role, CAL FIRE is an all-risk department.

The Sonoma-Lake-Napa Unit is comprised of six counties north of the San Francisco Bay Area, encompassing almost 4.5 million acres (6,800 square miles) from the Pacific Ocean to the Interstate-5 corridor. The counties of Sonoma, Lake, Napa, Colusa, Yolo and Solano come together to form a CAL FIRE Unit with a vast range of vegetation types, populations and political climates.

Grasslands and oak woodlands comprise most of the land. Interspersed are redwood and Douglas-fir forests on the coast, pine forests in the upper elevations, chaparral brushlands throughout and agricultural land (wine country) in the valleys. Nearly 1.4 million people live within the Unit, with the majority of the population clustered in the urban areas of Napa, Sonoma, Santa Rosa, Vallejo, Vacaville and Davis.