Cool temperatures and light breeze helped prevent fire from
spreading quickly
By Lori Stuenkel
Gilroy – Firefighters spent roughly one hour battling what could have become this season’s first large wildfire Friday afternoon, after a Croy Road resident spotted a blaze in the western foothills.
Cooler than normal temperatures, about 80 degrees, and a light wind offered favorable conditions that kept flames close to the ground and prevented the fire from spreading before firefighters responded.
“It’s dry, but with a light wind, so that’s definitely working for us,” said Wiley Evans, battalion chief for the Santa Clara County/California Department of Forestry.
CDF firefighting crews were dispatched from Morgan Hill at 1:41pm to 5915 Croy Road, about one mile uphill from Uvas Road. A helicopter dispatched from the Alma Station, just outside Los Gatos near the Lexington reservoir flew over the area and at first had trouble spotting the smoke. The air support found the fire a little uphill from Uvas Road, about a quarter-mile north of the paved Croy Road, in an area containing dry grass, low bushes, and manzanita trees.
The fire burned roughly a quarter of an acre in a circle surrounding a run-down mobile home on the property. The structure itself was not damaged by the fire or smoke, but some of the wooden steps leading to it were charred. The area that burned was mostly clear of the thick brush found in the area, but contained heaps of metal cans, trimmed tree limbs and other trash that Evans said may have been stored there since this past winter.
The cause of the fire was undetermined Friday afternoon, and a fire investigator was en route to the scene.
Evans said the clutter around the mobile home may have sparked or contributed to the start of the fire.
Firefighters from five CDF engines contained the area at 2:35pm, but continued spraying hot spots and checking the scene, which was within a mile as the crow flies east of a fire that burned 3,000 acres and burned 34 homes in 2002.
Some lower-hanging leaves on trees surrounding the home were yellowed from the heat of the flames, but few actually burned.
That the fire was largely contained to the grass and brush nearest the ground played a large part in being able to contain it quickly, Evans said. He noted that the day was drier than a typical summer day, without the morning fog that creeps through the valley. A big fire factor for the area – wind – was also missing Friday afternoon.
“Sometimes, you get the strong wind that comes down off the top of the hill,” Evans said. “There’s a calm wind, so that’s working in our favor.”
