A rapidly spreading wildland fire broke out Wednesday afternoon around 1:30pm, forcing people from their homes and scrambling to save pets.
By the time firefighters arrived, flames were charging up a steep wooded hillside on the 100 block of Vega Road while a towering column of black and brown smoke wafted over the Pajaro Valley.
Joel Mendoza, fire chief of North Monterey County Fire, said firefighters largely got a handle on the blaze within an hour, and they were putting out hotspots and doing mop-up into late afternoon.
Evacuation warnings were issued on Vega Road and the 250 block of Hayes Road.
Tommy Mealer said the flames came right up to the side of his house.
“At first I heard sirens, then I smelled smoke,” he said. “I went out on the deck and saw flames. Once the wind hit it really took off all at once. I yelled for my sister. We jumped in my car but it wouldn’t start because the battery was dead. So we ran down the hill to safety. I don’t know where my cats are.”
Firefighters fought the blaze from the ground and sky where flames erupted in clutches of eucalyptus trees and dry brush.
A CalFire air tanker dropped numerous curtains of bright red fire retardant over the blaze as a CalFire helicopter, after dropping off a hand crew on the ground, dumped water across the flames.
Mendoza said several structures were threatened but fire crews got a rapid handle on the blaze and saved the buildings, except for one small outbuilding that was fully engulfed.
One early-day passenger bus, long ago abandoned, was also consumed in flames.
Alan Lamb lives near where the fire spread.
“My house was OK but I drove my car out to safety,” he said.
Swarms of onlookers gathered along different spots of Vega Road. Monterey County Sheriff’s deputies shut down Vega Road in the area.
Meanwhile, Watsonville was consumed in heavy smoke throughout the incident and into the late afternoon.
A few residents in the area said they believed the fire started from a control burn along the 100 block of Vega Road. The incident is still under investigation.
The Monterey County Sheriff’s Office lifted the evacuation warning for Hayes Road.
Vega Road remains under an evacuation warning overnight until crews can reassess in the morning.
