Amid strong but seasonal winds, firefighters prevailed Sunday after a wildfire swept through 14,000 acres on Saturday, burning at least one home and closing two highways, before authorities relaxed mandatory evacuation orders in one area southwest of Tracy.
Saturday along Corral Hollow Road on the border of Alameda and San Joaquin counties, on land used by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory Site 300, a facility that once developed explosive material and other devices. It was unclear what sparked the fire, said Cal Fire’s Santa Clara unit, which is in unified command with Alameda County Fire Department crews.
In a 6 p.m. update, officials said the fire had burned 14,168 acres and was 50% contained as crews worked through another day of southwest winds pushing flames into a small residential area known as Par Country Estates a along Interstate 580. Flames burned 25 miles west of Modesto and 60 miles south of Sacramento.
“High winds and dry grass have made it difficult to contain,” Cal Fire SCU said in its Sunday morning update. But by afternoon, officials had made progress on the threat to area homes and emergency officials had relaxed orders from mandatory evacuations to warnings. San Joaquin County officials said the warnings would go into effect at 6 p.m.
Two firefighters from the Alameda department were being treated for minor injuries Saturday, Cal Fire said.
Roads reopen as conditions improve
Around noon Sunday, both directions of Interstate 580 were reopened, reconnecting Interstate 5 – a major artery between Southern California and the Bay Area – with Altamont Pass. Caltrans District 10 officials said one eastbound lane would remain closed between I-205 and I-5 to cushion firefighters’ efforts. Highway 132 was also reopened after being closed for about 17 hours.
Between the start of the fire and midnight, the wind-swept fire jumped to 10,000 acres and burned a home and several outside structures and vehicles. Flames were able to cross the four-lane highway Saturday at several points, Cal Fire perimeter maps showed. Crews responded by keeping the flames limited to an area near the border between San Joaquin and Stanislaus counties. Other fire spots had nowhere to go once they reached the California Aqueduct.
Eight miles north, away from the winds and smoke that hung over the fire, an American flag wrapped around the flagpole outside the Larch Clover Community Center in north Tracy.
Five volunteers sat inside the community center next to tables filled with water bottles, Blue Diamond almonds and “fiery hot” beef jerky. Despite the provisions, only four people had attended services Sunday as of 11:30 a.m., a volunteer said.
About 25 evacuees had come on Saturday, mainly to obtain information, before moving to hotels in the area.
In a morning update, firefighters said that “weather conditions became more favorable for firefighters, allowing crews to move forward with construction and improvement of control lines.”
Winds are expected to remain gusty
Winds in the area were fierce overnight, but not unusual for an area that is dotted with wind turbines just to the north. At Altamont Pass, southwest winds were around 40 mph and gusts to 50 mph were recorded around 3 a.m. Winds on the San Joaquin-Stanislaus county line were gusting to 25 mph, according to sensor readings collected. by the National Meteorological Service.
Idamis Shoemaker, a meteorologist with the weather service office in Sacramento, said daytime winds were expected to remain between 20 and 30 mph, but strong winds were expected to return in the afternoon in the fire area.
Shoemaker said gusts in the general fire area could reach 35 mph, which is normal for this time of year as onshore breezes blow over the coastal mountains and down into the Central Valley.
As air crews flew in at dawn to help more than 400 troops on the ground battle the flames, ranch homes along Vernalis Road, just south of Highway 132 and near the Tracy Golf and Country Club, had been saved thanks to the defensible space around their homes.
A house in the area had burned overnight, along with several outside structures and an abandoned house and barn.
The San Joaquin County Office of Emergency Services said it would relax mandatory evacuation orders for areas west of the California Aqueduct, south of Corral Hollow Creek, west of the Alameda County line and south of the Stanislaus County line, around 6 pm, allowing residents to return.
‘It’s been a while since we’ve had one this close’
Christine and Jamilyn Lewis drove to the intersection of Chrisman Road and Durham Ferry Road, where the California Highway Patrol (CHP) had closed traffic to the blackened hills beyond Sunday afternoon. The mother and daughter live about 8 miles from West Corral Hollow Road, where the fire started.
Jamilyn Lewis was out with friends Saturday when she saw smoke in the air and said, “Wow, that’s not good.” Meanwhile, her mother frantically began packing several days’ worth of clothing and dog food for her four-month-old German shepherd puppy, Harley, in case they had to evacuate to a Tracy Wildlife Association campground.
“My husband always has an emergency bag and he said, ‘I told you so!’” Christine Lewis said. “Last night we got to work and I was up until 6 am.”
The fire reminded Lewis and her husband of living in the San Francisco Bay Area during the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm, in which 25 people died and more than 3,000 homes were destroyed. She moved to Tracy months later, and hadn’t encountered a similar fire until Saturday.
“It’s been a long time since we’ve had one this close, and we’ve been here for 28 years,” he said.
The Lewis home was still safe Sunday afternoon, but Christine spoke to a friend around 10 p.m. Saturday whose 500-acre ranch had burned, decimating multiple structures. After that, she and her husband began preparing to load their Harley-Davidson motorcycles onto a trailer in case of evacuation. Harley, the pup, would ride with Jamilyn in the car.
Fire investigation begins
Several nearby homes remained without power after the fire knocked down lines Saturday, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said. PG&E also said firefighters had asked that power be turned off to some lines. Up to 3,800 service customers were in the dark Saturday night, with only about 160 still without power, the utility company said.
An evacuation shelter remained open at the Larch Clover Community Center, 11157 W. Larch Road. County officials also set up an animal evacuation center at the Manteca Education & Training Center, at 2271 W. Louise Ave.
In addition to the 60 fire trucks, 12 tanker trucks and nine hand crews battling the flames, a team of investigators was on scene near Site 300 to begin investigating what sparked the fire, Cal Fire said.
Firefighters said previous prescribed burns in the area initially helped slow the spread, but no prescribed burn plans were started or carried out Saturday, said Cheryl Hurd, spokeswoman for the Alameda County Fire Department.
