By Rick DelVecchio
The San Francisco Chronicle (California)
Copyright 2006 The Chronicle Publishing Co.
All Rights Reserved
Investigators are seeking the cause of a fire that had blackened about 2,510 acres of brush and grass by Sunday afternoon in a remote Stanislaus County canyon about 5 miles west of Patterson and 7 miles west of Interstate 5, a California Department of Forestry spokesman said.
The blaze, which began about noon Friday near Frank Raines Park, was expected to be contained by 6 p.m. today, spokesman Herman DeKruyff said. The cause is under investigation. Eight homes and barns were threatened, but none was damaged.
Sunday’s cooler air temperatures and dying winds helped more than 1,100 firefighters attack the fire in rugged chaparral. Six helicopters dropped water on hot spots.