Cal Fire responded to a brush fire near Hwy 101 in Gilroy on Sunday afternoon, July 23. The blaze, known as the Castro Fire, burned south of Gavilan College near Castro Valley Road.
According to Cal Fire public information officer Mike Martin the fire, now officially mapped at 125 acres, is 100 percent contained, but not 100 percent controlled.
“Some of the areas where the aircraft put out the fire, they are constructing a fireline,” Martin said. “We are in the process of mopping it up before calling it controlled.”
Martin, a battalion chief in Alameda county, expects the Cal Fire incident to be completely controlled within one to two days.
“Cal Fire deployed 100 firefighters from three agencies Cal Fire, Gilroy fire Department and South Santa Clara County Fire District,” said Martin.
Gavilan staff and students can breathe a sigh of relief as the fire had no impact on the campus. Public information officer with Gavilan, Jan Bernstein Chargin said the junior college was prepared in the event there would be any threat to the campus.
“I believe Castro Valley Road was closed briefly while they were fighting the fire and the road reopened yesterday evening,” says Bernstein Chargin. “There was no impact to the campus.”
Martin attributes the successful containment of the fire to “cooperation amongst all the different jurisdictions. For instance this first was not in the city of Gilroy, but Gilroy sent us considerable resources to help Cal Fire put it out.”
According to Martin, the cause of the blaze remains under investigation.
