Lafayette residents evacuate — blaze damages tennis club

Lafayette: Blaze badly damages tennis club, scorches home

Residents in Lafayette were ordered to evacuate Sunday because of a wildfire that badly damaged a tennis club, officials said.

The roughly 7acre fire burned near Camino Diablo and Springbrook Road north of Highway 24 on the eastern side of Lafayette. Residents on the north and south sides of the freeway east of Pleasant Hill Road were ordered to evacuate, and cleared to return between 4:40 and 7 p.m.

The fire broke out after 2 p.m., badly damaging the main building and destroying two outbuildings at the Lafayette Tennis Club on Camino

Diablo, said Capt. George Laing, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District. The fire also damaged the roof and chimney of a home, Laing said.

Laing said that the fire’s forward progress was stopped around 3 p.m. About 100 firefighters battled it.

A power pole lay flat across Camino Diablo, having pulled electrical lines down with it. A Lafayette police officer said the pole was down when he arrived just after the fire began, and flames spread from there south to Highway 24. Embers that jumped the freeway started another small fire that was quickly extinguished.

The area was not included in Pacific Gas and Electric Co.’s power outages, the officer said.

About 50 feet from the fallen distribution line, the Lafayette Tennis Club clubhouse was destroyed. Around 3:45 p.m., firefighters doused the charred remains, with only a couple walls standing. The surrounding tennis courts were unscathed.

Winds continued to gust through the neighborhood, but by late afternoon the fire had calmed down. The Contra Costa fire district said several units overnight would guard against the wind picking up embers.

Chronicle staff writer Joaquin Palomino contributed to this report.