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Winds Fan Fire In North Salinas: Three County Fire Departments Respond to Blaze

Posted on: Friday, 16 June 2006, 09:01 CDT

By Andre Briscoe, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.

Jun. 16--"The fire season has begun."

That is what Salinas City Fire Department Battalion Chief Brett Loomis said minutes after 30 firefighters from three county fire agencies doused a grass fire that burned more than two acres in North Salinas on Thursday.

Loomis said the fire was the largest in Salinas this year.

"We have had several small fires during the past several weeks as the temperatures have warmed up, and the grasses get drier and the winds continue to pick up," he said. "Normally every year there is some fire of this magnitude in this area. We normally don't see it this early in the season."

Crews found two fires burning at Freedom Parkway and Constitution Boulevard at 12:08 p.m., Loomis said. One blaze, 10- by 20-feet wide, burned near Freedom Parkway while a one-eighth-acre blazed nearby.

High winds fanned the fire and pushed it toward homes on Nogal Drive, Loomis said. Fire crews from the North Monterey County Fire Department and the Salinas Rural Fire District took positions to the east on Cottonwood Drive, where a fire threatened homes last year.

Loomis said the flames were not particularly high and that the grass was not substantial, but high winds that whipped through the area caused the blaze to move quickly.

"It's very difficult to predict. We are not the experts when it comes to vegetation firefighting, but we are definitely gearing up for what is anticipated as being a worse-than-normal fire season," he said.

Hours earlier, Salinas' department was set to take part in a fire drill at Laguna Seca Recreation Area. They were to join at least five other county departments to practice response to large-scale wildfires and to prepare residents on ways to protect their homes, but the real fire interrupted the drill.

Dorothy Priolo, Salinas Rural Fire District deputy fire marshal, said the "real" incident is a reminder that firefighter training and public education can be called into action at any moment.

"The main difference is that it (the burned area) was flat," she said. "Otherwise it's exactly the same kind of response that we would have. They may have a small area of land that they are working with, but their density of homes is different too."

Thursday's blaze underscores the need for preparation, Loomis said.

"At a bare minimum, on level ground (dried brush) should be 30 feet away from any combustible structure or any home," he said. "If you live on an incline or on top of a hill, at least 100 feet. That's just smart homeowner activities to do."

Loomis said the fire danger Southern California faces every year is present in Monterey County.

"That potential is here. We have houses spread out among the brush," he said.

Fire crews from the Marina Department of Public Safety and the Ord Military Community were called to aid the Salinas Fire Department, but the mutual aid call was canceled when firefighters controlled the blaze by 1:30 p.m. There was no property loss and no reported injuries to firefighters.

montereyherald.com.

Andre Briscoe can be reached at 646-4436 or abriscoe@

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Monterey County Herald, Calif.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

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Source: The Monterey County Herald (Monterey, Calif.)

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