GILROY
– With trees bursting into flames, a wall of wind-driven fire
marching relentlessly down a parched mountain slope and a cloud of
billowing smoke polluting Pacheco Pass, local firefighters thought
they were in for a long, hot battle Monday afternoon.
GILROY – With trees bursting into flames, a wall of wind-driven fire marching relentlessly down a parched mountain slope and a cloud of billowing smoke polluting Pacheco Pass, local firefighters thought they were in for a long, hot battle Monday afternoon.
Fortunately, Mother Nature cooperated with the firefighters, and the largest wildfire to blaze in South County so far this season was extinguished by 9 p.m. Monday.
Subsiding winds helped the firefighters get the fire under control by sunset but not before it burned 177 acres, drew 332 firefighters and brought back eerie images of last September’s Croy Fire to many of the men and women fighting to control the blaze.
No structures were burned by the fire, which burned mostly in an uninhabited area of grass, scattered oak and brush near Spur Ridge.
“The scary thing about this fire was that it was moving so fast,” said Jason Gonzales, a firefighter with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection who was with the first fire engine to arrive on scene Monday. “When we got there it was about one acre, then all of the sudden it was 10 acres, then it jumped the road.”
The fire began around noon just north of Highway 152 and three miles west of the Pacheco Pass summit on the private property of El Toro Ranch. Investigators are still looking into the cause of the fire, but preliminary signs showed that a flaming piece of exhaust from a passing vehicle on westbound Highway 152 likely sparked the fire, Gonzales said.
The fire never did reach the highway – winds blew it in the opposite, northeast direction – and traffic was slowed by rubbernecking motorists, but all four lanes of 152 remained open throughout Monday, CDF Division Chief Rick Hutchinson said.
Four helicopters, six air tankers, 15 fire engines and three bulldozers were called in from four counties to control the blaze, all at a cost of $100,000.
Following Monday’s wildfire, officials are warning that the worst may still be ahead, as temperatures are expected to climb into the 90s as the week progresses.
Temperatures near Pacheco Pass were in the low 70s Monday, but early afternoon winds exceeding 14 miles per hour helped spread the fire quickly.
Late rains this season delayed the start of wildfire season by three weeks and also spurred unusually thick growth of vegetation in many of South County’s hills and mountains.
The extra-thick vegetation could make this one of the worst wildfire seasons in recent years, according to local CDF officials, who said they are already seeing more action this year than last.
“With the thick grasses and brush, it is much harder to control a fire,” Gonzales said. “Once those thick grasses catch, they’re not going to go out easily.”
The CDF has put out a high fire danger alert for South County, which means they will have extra staffing on many of their engines that normally carry three firefighters apiece. The alert is second only to the “Red Flag” warning, which the CDF has already issued in many inland areas of the state.
For more information on fire alerts visit www.fire.ca.gov.
