Fire crews have contained a fast-moving vegetation fire that destroyed three structures in Windsor on Saturday afternoon.
Firefighters said the 5-acre blaze was fueled by dry tinder conditions and heavy wind gusts.
The fire on Old Redwood Highway near Eastside Road began at about 1:45 p.m. and spread quickly. Three structures went up in flames: an abandoned home, a workshop and a storage shed.
“It had a good southwest wind on it, pushing it,” said Sonoma County Fire Department Battalion Chief Cyndi Foreman. “Unfortunately, this almost spotted over the freeway. This did actually spot into the median of the freeway, so this had a lot of potential.”
Except for one northbound lane, Highway 101 was closed for nearly an hour.
As luck would have it, CAL FIRE has an airborne aerial attack base at the nearby Charles M. Schulz Sonoma County Airport. A helicopter was able to drop large baskets of water on the blaze, making passes roughly 2 minutes apart.
Abe watched the fire spread.
“The main thing I noticed, actually, was that the fuel condition was terrible – high grass, brush everywhere,” he told KCBS Radio. “I was surprised at how much fuel there was so close to the house.”
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
Related
