San Juan Bautista
– A county-owned lawn mower started a wildfire that consumed 30
acres of Rancho Larios pastureland Tuesday and came close to homes
off Rocks Road and Highway 156, CalFire officials said.
San Juan Bautista – A county-owned lawn mower started a wildfire that consumed 30 acres of Rancho Larios pastureland Tuesday and came close to homes off Rocks Road and Highway 156, CalFire officials said.
A spark from a lawn mower blade that hit a rock started the blaze, CalFire Capt. Jim Dellamonica said. San Benito County owns the lawn mower and provides landscape service along area roads, according to the assessor’s office.
County officials declined to comment on the fire Tuesday.
CalFire crews from San Benito, Santa Clara and Santa Cruz counties responded to the blaze at 11:20am Tuesday, Dellamonica said. With the help of 46 firefighters, nine fire engines, one bulldozer, a helicopter, one plane and two tankers, it was contained within 40 minutes, he said.
The tankers dropped water on the blaze before ground crews arrived, Dellamonica said.
Conditions were ripe for the wildfire to spread out of control – with thick dry grasses, rolling hills and wind gusts up to 25 mph, Dellamonica said. People as far away as downtown Hollister could smell the pungent smoke as firefighters fought the flames.
“This was an excellent stop,” Dellamonica said. “This thing had a lot of potential.”
The California Highway Patrol conducted traffic control on a stretch of Highway 156 near the fire. Motorists had zero visibility crossing that highway section while the fire burned, Dellamonica said. Smoke could be seen on Highway 156 as far east as the Highway 25 junction.
Firefighters prevented the blaze from spreading south across Highway 156, he said.
“We were really concerned about spot fires, which we didn’t get across the highway,” the captain said.
High winds spread the fire quickly, but the blaze continued away from homes, Dellamonica said. It spread within several hundred yards of homes in the Rancho Larios community, but no one had to be evacuated.
Several residents standing outside of Rancho Larios declined to comment Tuesday.
There are two large wildfires near Lake Tahoe and in Kern County that are drawing resources from throughout the state.
“We haven’t sent a lot of stuff out yet to help them,” Dellamonica said.
