Cal Fire on Monday battled a pair of Contra Costa County blazes that consumed 625 acres of brush and wildlands, authorities said.
A three-alarm brush fire that burned on Kirker Pass and Hess roads, near the former Concord Naval Weapons Station, charred 350 acres and damaged two barns and two outbuildings, officials said.
Firefighters, who said the blaze spread quickly, report the brush fire started shortly after 1:30 p.m.
- PHOTOS: Cal Fire Fights East Bay Blaze
Cal Fire aircrafts also helped battle the flames from the air.
The fire hit literally too close to home for Pam Elsberry who came home from work in Fairfield after she said she got multiple calls from friends and family that a fire was burning off of Kirker Pass Road. Her brother, a Concord police officer, was one of the first to warn her.
“He was like you dodged a bullet! And when I saw that I was like jeez, it’s right across the street from us,” Elsberry recalled. “And our neighbor, Smith, just barely missed his corral getting burned.”
A house north on Kirker Pass also escaped, but barely.
Robert Marshall, a spokesman for the Contra Costa County Fire Prevention District, said it was a game of mere inches, but firefighters were able to stave off the flames using their hoses and clearing some break lines around the property.
Daniel Berlant, CalFire spokesman, said the two Contra Costa County fires were the largest in the state. Hundreds of firefighters were dedicated to battling the “Kirker Pass” fire and the “Concord” fire. That one burned 275 acres off of Concord Avenue and Vineyard Parkway in Brentwood.
Berlant added that CalFire crews will be monitoring the areas for both fires overnight and will also patrol for an hour or two on Tuesday to ensure no hotspots flare up.
Elsberry is hoping the fires will serve as a wake-up call to those who are considering lighting fireworks this week for the Fourth of July celebrations.
“You just have to be careful especially because we’ve had so little rain here and it’s so hot, and up here it gets so windy,” she said. “You know what happened in the Oakland Hills way back when. We don’t have as many structures but it’s still just as risky, and it’s scary.”
Both fires were contained at about 7:40 p.m. and no injuries were reported.
Local
Bay City News contributed to this report.
