KELSEYVILLE — A woman driving with her emergency break on caused nine wildland fires along Soda Bay Road Thursday evening just east of the entrance to Clear Lake State Park, according to Kelseyville Fire Chief Howard Strickler.
CAL Fire and Kelseyville Fire Protection District sent crews after the fire was initially reported at 5:19 a.m., according to CAL Fire Captain Joe Petersen. He said some of the nine original fires burned together and consumed approximately five acres.
“When she became aware she was causing the fires, she pulled over, flagged down the first fire truck that came through and said, ?I”m the one responsible for the fire,” and they told her to wait there,” Strickler said.
He added that CAL Fire will decide whether or not to recover the cost of fire suppression from the errant driver. Strickler said the driver pulled over as soon as she realized she was causing the fires.
“This was not arson and it was not negligence, it was an accidental fire,” Strickler said.
Kelseyville fire sent five engines, a water tender and Strickler to the fire. Strickler responded from his Live Oak Drive home in Kelseyville.
“When I was responding down Live Oak, I could already see the smoke on the back side of the hill. As I drove past the main entrance (to Clear Lake State Park) I thought we had another fire, so I thought I had better go further and see if there were more. So I drove around the corner, and as I did I counted nine fires along that stretch of the road,” Strickler said.
Petersen said 80 CAL Fire personnel responded along with five engines, a battalion chief, two dozers, a helicopter and three air tankers. The blaze was under control in two hours, and crews were on scene all night and were still mopping up Friday afternoon, according to Petersen.
Strickler said two structures were threatened, but the only damage was to a fence in front of a residence. No one was reported injured.
“We were very lucky, because the weather was cool, the humidity was up and we didn”t get our brisk afternoon winds like we”ve been getting,” Strickler said.
Petersen confirmed the fire was caused by vehicle equipment failure, which he said includes parts of a vehicle engine falling off and landing in brush by the roadside and igniting a fire.
“Generally, as the breaks overheat, sometimes pieces of the brake shoes can get red hot and break off or catch your tire on fire,” Strickler said.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
