By Laith Agha
The Monterey County Herald
MONTEREY, Calif. — A fire near the Big Sur coast proved to be a close call for many residents of Palo Colorado Canyon on Monday, and it sent a firefighter to the hospital after the bulldozer he was operating tumbled down a steep hill where crews were making a fire break.
The fire, reported around 1 p.m., burned 50 acres on the south face of Garrapata Ridge, said Cal Fire incident commander Sam Walker. Crews halted the fire’s progress around 4:30 p.m., at which time the fire was 20 percent contained, Walker said.
About 20 fire engines, four water tenders, four air tankers, two helicopters and eight hand crews, including six from Cal Fire and two from the U.S. Forest Service, responded to the incident.
The fire started on a residential property about two miles in from Highway 1, officials said. A house on the property was destroyed, officials said.
“We think the structural fire caused the vegetation fire,” Walker said.
Other residences near the suspected origin were not damaged. The fire burned within 150 feet of some of those houses, a resident said.
A precautionary evacuation was enacted, said Cal Fire spokeswoman Jan Bray, but was lifted by late evening. Residents were allowed to drive out of the canyon, but entrance was restricted to emergency vehicles and late Monday some residents were still not able to reach their houses, Bray said.
“The forward spread is halted,” she said, “and the fire is not threatening other homes.”
Bray said the fire would likely be fully extinguished by around 6 p.m. today.
Many home-bound residents sat in their cars along the highway, watching as aircraft dumped ocean water on the fire. A towering smoke plume was visible from the coast.
The bulldozer operator was taken by helicopter from the scene, Bray said. His condition and extent of injuries were unknown at press time.
Joel Severson, who lives with his family one ridge over from where the fire burned, was observing the firefighting effort when he saw the bulldozer roll.
“It was almost a vertical slope, and this thing was airborne (and) flipping,” Severson said. “There was one other guy up there. He was flying down that hill (chasing the bulldozer), so you knew there was somebody else in the cage.”
Several minutes later, the firefighter who chased the bulldozer appeared to be “doing jumping jacks” trying to grab a helicopter’s attention, Severson said.
Severson said he saw the fire progress through several stages, including a period in which it appeared to die down before flaring up again.
“It was lucky it just burned in an area that is not heavily populated,” he said.
Copyright 2007 Monterey County Herald
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News