At approximately 12:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 24 a landscaping crew sparked a blaze behind Cardinal Newman High School that sent local fire agencies springing into action and frayed nerves in an area not yet finished rebuilding from the devastation of the 2017 Tubbs Fire.
Crews from the Sonoma County Fire District and the City of Santa Rosa Fire Department converged on the scene, and multiple fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters dropped retardant on water on the flames. The fire was contained within an hour, but crews remained on site another six hours to finish extinguishing it. No structures were damaged.
“Your Sonoma County firefighters responded to an approximately 10-12 acre vegetation fire this afternoon. Forward progress of the fire has been stopped, no threat to structures and no evacuations. Crews are working on putting in the final containment lines to button this up,” said a Thursday afternoon statement from the Sonoma County Fire District.
The 12-acre fire was caused by a mower.
“These types of incidents take a ‘village’ to battle and we all rely on our neighboring first responders to mitigate them. It’s not just fire engines from our neighbors but also command staff and public information personnel,” the statement continued. “So, if you saw the Nixle that went out about the fire early on from the City of Santa Rosa Fire Department that is a great example of neighbors helping neighbors.”
