RANCHO SAN DIEGO FIRE DESTROYS HOME, DAMAGES SIX
Wind-driven, it chars 30 acres before full containment
A fire ignited near a steep, brush-covered hillside in Rancho San Diego Wednesday night as fierce Santa Ana winds howled, forcing residents to grab pets and valuables and f lee.
Sheriff ’s investigators said the cause is undetermined but the fire may have been lit accidentally when a heat lamp in a chicken coop blew over and caught some hay on fire.
“We are fully confident it was not arson,” Sgt. Greg Hampton, who heads the bomb-arson unit, said. “There’s nothing suspicious about it.”
Wind-whipped flames quickly spread and evacuation alerts were sent to residents in around 200 homes considered threatened. Deputies fanned out to knock on the doors of the homes deemed most in danger.
Firefighters were able to gain the upper hand with the assistance of air support and ground crews. Two San Diego Fire-Rescue helicopters made repeated water drops, while a bulldozer cleared brush and dozens of firefighters from several agencies took up positions near threatened homes, pulling water from hydrants to douse approaching f lames.
In the end, 30 acres were charred, one home was gutted and six others were damaged. By 6 p.m. Thursday, the fire was fully contained. Officials said a fire engine crew would patrol the area overnight to look out for any f lare-ups.
That the fire didn’t cause more destruction was largely because of where it sparked and the fact that winds pushed it west — toward streets and homes — rather than giving it the chance to run through vegetation to the east, fire officials said. The blaze erupted around 10 p.m. in a belt of undeveloped land between Willow Glen Drive and Wind River Road. The area is southeast of Valhalla High School near the Cottonwood Golf Club. Within the first 45 minutes, the fire chewed through around 15 acres, according to Cal Fire.
“Because this particular area is basically a little belt of vegetation surrounded by homes and roads, it kind of ran out of fuel,” Cal Fire Capt. Thomas Shoots said. “If this fire had gone east, it would have been off to the races.”
Residents, some who f led with just a few belongings they packed in a hurry, were directed to the nearby movie theater in the Target shopping center off Jamacha and Campo roads. Sheriff ’s officials later asked evacuees to go to a temporary evacuation point at the nearby McGrath Family YMCA.
The fire ignited in “a remarkably manageable spot,” San Miguel Fire & Rescue Division Chief Jim Marugg said. He credited the cooperation of crews from various agencies — Cal Fire, San Miguel, Heartland Fire and others — for their quick response. Around 200 firefighters helped put out the f lames, Shoots said.
“It just worked well,” Marugg said Thursday. “And we are able to work so seamlessly, the level of cooperation between agencies, it is really remarkable to watch and to be a part of.”
By 3:45 a.m. Thursday, county officials had lifted all evacuation orders.
On Thursday, Lorie Wood, who lives on Sea Pines Road, said she was amazed by the work of firefighters, including dozer crews, as she looked around at the houses in her cul-de-sac. “These houses shouldn’t be here,” she said while standing in her driveway.
“You could feel the heat on your body,” she said of the fire.
“It came over that hill so fast, and we had no time,” she continued. “Nobody had any time to get out of here. You had less than five minutes.”
On the other end of the burn area, neighbors walked along Wind River Road with a sense of sadness and disbelief, stopping to observe the damage to the two-story house that was gutted. Some said a retired couple lived in the house, which sits atop a hillside that burned.
The couple’s daughter showed up and appeared distraught as she stood in front of the charred structure of the house. She declined an interview.
Jason Shaya, who lives down the street, said he and his family were getting ready for bed when he heard sirens getting “closer and closer.” Then a firetruck stopped close by, its engine still running.
He said he stepped onto a balcony and saw a reddish hue in the sky and embers f lying. When he walked up the street, he saw the neighbors’ house in f lames. He worried a wind-blown ember would ignite more homes in the neighborhood.
“It was devastating,” he said. “It was a sense of panic.”
He and his wife knocked on a few doors before the family evacuated from the home. They filled a backpack with medicine, grabbed clothes and other items — and left. “Our thoughts were our house is (going to be) gone,” he said.
Linda Kirk thought the same.
Lying in bed and hooked up to a device that treats sleep apnea, she thought something was wrong with the CPAP machine when she smelled smoke. She then walked to the kitchen to see if her husband had burned something.
Just then, firefighters knocked on their door.
Flames were racing up the hillside behind the couple’s house. They needed to leave. They grabbed their cat and jumped into their car.
“When we backed out, all I could see was the smoke, the billowing f lames from the house and the bush (in a front yard) across the street on fire,” she said.
The couple spent the night in their car in the Regal Edwards theater parking lot, where they watched a 10News live broadcast of the fire.
Some residents stayed in the neighborhood.
Among them was Daren Schneider, who teamed up with others to assist firefighters. With garden hoses in hand, he and another resident doused a bush in a front yard that was on fire. When the roof of the house began smoldering, he hopped on and doused the rooftop. Schneider and his brother then stood at the top of the nearby hillside that burned and hosed down the flames.