Gilroy
– Stiff winds blew burning embers from a controlled burn onto
the wood-shake roof of a neighbor’s barn and threatened a nearby
home just east of Gilroy Tuesday afternoon.
Gilroy – Stiff winds blew burning embers from a controlled burn onto the wood-shake roof of a neighbor’s barn and threatened a nearby home just east of Gilroy Tuesday afternoon.
By the time firefighters arrived at 1:10pm, 12 minutes after a caller reported it, the roof and one wall of the barn were ablaze and the wind was blowing the fire toward a wood-roofed,
two-story farmhouse 60 feet away, according to Capt. Michael Mathiesen of the California Department of Forestry/South County Fire District. The farm is located on Sheldon Avenue, off Bloomfield Avenue.
The firefighters knew they had to act fast to keep the flames from the house, according to Mathiesen.
“That’s why we hit it with everything we had,” he said.
“Everything” meant the two-and-a-half-inch-diameter “blitz line,” the widest hose CDF/South County has that delivers the most water per second.
Two minutes later, at 1:12, the flames were “knocked down,” according to Mathiesen. That meant the blaze was now too weak to spread to the house.
“I’m so grateful to the firefighters because they kept it off the house,” said, Pansey Rhodebeck, who owns the house and barn along with her husband, Harley.
The fire began as a south Gilroy farmer burned 16 large piles of cleared orchard trees. Winds blew burning embers onto the barn’s wood-shake roof.
Firefighters also were able to save most of the barn. By 2:30pm they had contained the fire, and they extinguished the last few hot spots by 4pm. The roof and wall were fire-damaged, with some holes, but that was all, Mathiesen said.
Plus, the entire contents of the barn were saved, including a large quantity of hay, tractors and tools, he added.
The two-story, 2,000-square-foot barn was built in 1980, Mathiesen said.
The landowner who was burning the orchard trees was absent at the time of the barn fire and was unknown as of press time. Firefighters spoke to an employee who was managing the burn.
This landowner had a burning variance from the Santa Clara County Agriculture Department, Mathiesen said.
The CDF and Gilroy Fire Department helped CDF/South County fight the blaze. CDF/South County and CDF each sent three trucks, while the GFD sent one.
Chief Photographer James M. Mohs contributed to this report.
