Jun 12, 2008 12:14 am US/Pacific
1,500 Flee Santa Cruz As Wildfires Scorch NorCal
BONNY DOON (CBS 5 / KCBS / AP / BCN) ―
A second day of hot, dry winds kicked up new fires across the Bay Area and Northern California on Wednesday — the most notable of which was a raging forest fire that prompted 1,500 evacuations in the Bonny Doon area of Santa Cruz County.
About 650 firefighters planned to spend the night battling
the 1,000-acre blaze, known by Cal Fire officials as the Martin Fire, which had
destroyed at least one home in the Santa Cruz Mountains. No injuries were reported so far.
The fire
flared just two weeks after another blaze, the Summit Fire, two miles away scorched 4,200 acres and destroyed at least three dozen homes. Late Wednesday, mandatory evacuations were ordered for 500 residents in the heavily forested hills north of Santa Cruz. Voluntary evacuations were in place for another 1,000 residents.
The fast-moving fire quickly grew by nightfall after starting as a 50-acre blaze when it first broke out about 3 p.m. along Martin Road. Firefighters indicated they hoped to keep the blaze from jumping south of Martin Road, but noted it could spread to as many as 1,500 acres before they are able to slow down the flames.
Hot temperatures, steady winds and tinder-dry vegetation created conditions exactly like those that fed the earlier blaze.
Steve Woodill, a Cal Fire division chief who coordinated the fight against last month's Summit Fire, said the Martin Fire did not appear to be as fast-moving as the previous blaze. While the ground cover is drier in the fire area than the Summit Fire terrain, the winds were not nearly as strong.
"We're fortunate that we have not the strong winds that we had three weeks ago," Woodill said. "I'm not looking in my mind at this point at a 3,500-acre fire."
About 1,000 residences were threatened by the Martin Fire, which had set several structures ablaze. Residents on Ice Cream Grade, Pine Flat and Martin roads were asked to evacuate via reverse 911 calls.
Jeanne Colbus, 60, who lives about five miles from Bonny Doon, said she and her 94-year-old mother quickly left their home after she saw smoke in the hills and received the call ordering them to evacuate.
"I was gardening and I looked up and saw that big column of smoke," said Colbus, who planned to spend the night at an emergency shelter several miles from the blaze. "I'm scared. We don't have fire insurance for one thing. A lot of our things are irreplaceable."
The Red Cross set up the shelter for evacuees at San Lorenzo Valley Middle School at 7179 Hacienda Way in Felton. The Santa Cruz Animal Services Authority said evacuating livestock and domesticated animals could be taken to the county fairgrounds to be housed.
The Santa Cruz County Sheriff's Office said the following roads were closed due to the fire: Smith Grade Road at Bonny Doon Road; Martin Road at Pine Flat Road; Ice Cream Grade Road at Martin Road; and Empire Grade Road at Felton Empire Road.
A thick plume of orange smoke could be seen rising hundreds of feet above the rural hills as flames ripped through the trees and firefighters, air tankers and helicopters raced to the scene.
Equipment being used to fight the flames included eight helicopters, eight air tankers and as many as 20 bulldozers.
Fire-ripe conditions also prevailed throughout the rest of the region, where hundreds of additional firefighters were deployed on fire lines from the North Coast wine country to the Central Valley.
New grass fires sprouted near homes in Antioch, Alamo, Concord, Lafayette, Pinole and Vacaville among others — but so far, Wednesday's fires had not proved as destructive as blazes on Tuesday in the Central Valley that
destroyed 32 homes in Stockton and 21 homes in Palermo.
Wind gusts of up to 40 mph were fanning the flames, and a
Red Flag fire warning for the Bay Area issued by the National Weather Service was extended until Friday at 8 a.m.
A grass fire that started on Travis Air Force Base Wednesday afternoon burned about 1,000 acres in Solano County and warranted a six-alarm response before being contained around 6:30 p.m.
In Antioch, a two-alarm vegetation fire burned the roof of a home in the 4000 block of South Royal Links Circle on Wednesday afternoon. Flames also burned a fence and several trees on the Lone Tree Golf Course.
At midday,
firefighters contained a two-alarm grass fire near Interstate Highway 680 that had threatened structures in the area of Alamo in unincorporated Contra Costa County, according to the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District.
A 10-acre grass fire came close to homes along Lincoln Avenue in Concord early Wednesday morning, but firefighters were able to quickly put it down and there were no reports of damage or injuries.
Another
grass fire that charred a hillside off Interstate Highway 80 in Pinole Wednesday afternoon came within 20 feet of a house before firefighters stopped it.
In Lafayette, firefighters doused a grass fire in the hills near Briones Regional Park. No injuries were reported, but at least one home sustained heat damage.
Solano County firefighters contained
a 5-alarm fire at a home near the Cypress Lakes Golf Course in the Vacaville area that quickly spread to surrounding fields as wind blew the flames into the dry grasses around the house.
However in Sonoma County,
firefighters continued battling a wildfire along Geyser Road east of Cloverdale that started around 10 a.m. Tuesday. That fire charred some 800 acres and containment on Wednesday stood at 80 percent.
Other fires were concentrated in the Central Valley near the state capital —where for a second day, erratic wind gusts surprised firefighters who were overrun by flames.
In Butte County, several hundred homes were evacuated ahead of a fast-growing wildfire near Chico, about 90 miles north of Sacramento. The blaze, which started around noon, had grown to 6,000 acres Wednesday night and threatened about 250 structures. It was only about 10 percent contained.
Three firefighters were burned near Lincoln, about 35 miles northeast of Sacramento, when they were caught in a 65-acre grass fire burning in a dry rice field. The burn center at UC Davis also was treating a 21-year veteran of the Sacramento Metro Fire Department who was injured on Tuesday night while trying to protect a mobile home near a grass fire southeast of Sacramento.
The injuries to four firefighters in less than 24 hours showed just how fast and dangerous wind-whipped grass fires can be, said experts in fire behavior.
At the blaze in Palermo, a town of 5,000 residents about 60 miles north of Sacramento, flames were 60 percent contained on Wednesday. In addition to the 21 homes already destroyed, about 275 more homes were still threatened by the 1,600-acre wildfire.
"I grabbed a few pieces of clothing, my purse. My daughter grabbed her important papers and some clothing, whatever we could put in the car, and we left," evacuee Debbie Buchman said Wednesday in an interview at a church shelter. "We were hoping we would still have a home when we got back, but we didn't."
"The whole house was burnt to the ground, with everything we own," said Buchman, who escaped with her 21-year-old daughter and 4-year-old granddaughter. "It's pretty rough."
Other fires burning in Northern California on Wednesday included:
• A 1,200-acre fire near Highway 132 and Don Pedro Reservoir in Tuolumne County that was 30 percent contained.
•
A 10,800 acre fire in the Los Padres National Forest in Monterey County that was only 13 percent contained Wednesday night. About 15 summer cabins in the Santa Lucia Tract remain evacuated as a precaution.
• A 3,300-acre fire about 10 miles north of Fresno in Madera County that was almost 100 percent contained.
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