(Wine-Searcher) - A week of unrelentingly grim news about devastating fires in northern California wine country got the slightest glimmer of light Thursday, mostly from Napa County.

The best sign is that, while the city of Calistoga was added to the evacuation list on Wednesday night, Cal Fire officials said that they have finally cleared endangered areas of residents so that they can focus on containing the wildfires. This is still in the early stages. The Tubbs fire in northern Napa and eastern Sonoma Counties is one of the most damaging, and also one of the most contained – at 10 percent as of Thursday afternoon. It's a start.

Napa County law enforcement officials began escorting some evacuated residents back to their homes Thursday to retrieve possessions. Thousands of people are still in shelters, and their visits home are only temporary. But it's a start.

The best news is that weather forecasters said rain is a possibility next week. One of the reasons these wildfires have moved so rapidly is that foliage has dried out at the tail end of California's typical long, hot, dry summer. Rain would literally feel like a gift from God at this point.