As late Saturday evening becomes early Sunday morning, firefighters continue to battle a brush fire in northwestern Solano County that began Saturday afternoon amid hot and windy conditions.
A Cal Fire spokesperson said the fire, which began at 3:14 p.m., has held at 135 acres as of late Saturday evening. Containment remains at 45%.
The Solano County Sheriff's Office told NBC Bay Area that a man was arrested onsite for outstanding arrest warrants not related to the fire. However, deputies added the man was cited by Cal Fire for potentially starting the fire.
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The fire began in the area of Quail Canyon Road and Pleasants Valley Road, just south of state Highway 128 and west of Interstate 505. Smoke can be seen from eastern Napa County.
"The fire moved really quickly, close to my property line," Mel Toponce said.
Toponce was one of dozens of residents, who were forced to leave their homes as the winds and dry grass fueled flames that quickly grew to more than 100 acres, yards away from his property.
“I drove off and I left my gates open, in case fire crews needed to come,” he said.
According to the Solano County Office of Emergency Services, evacuation orders warnings were issued for residents. As of 8:30 p.m., Solano County officials said the evacuation order was reduced to a warning for all residents near the fire.
Rigoberto Mancia told NBC Bay Area that he saw the fire grow from a patch to dozens of acres and believes someone was trimming weeds when the flames sparked.
Mancia added that he felt helpless and afraid because he couldn’t do anything to stop the fire. He and 10 other people tried to put it out with shovels and water, but the wind got ahead of them.
Air support had to be called in but the forward progress had been stopped, officials said.
Cal Fire is preparing for a long season ahead.
“We just got out of a Red Flag Warning. It’s a little early for this time of the year and past years, we’ve also been bringing on our firefighters early this year. About a month early, this unit in Sonoma, Napa unit, we started rehiring about a month early just because of the dry conditions we're dealing with,” said Cal Fire spokesperson Tyree Zander.
The Napa County Office of Emergency Services, issued a statement early Saturday evening related to the Quail Fire , said there are no evacuations or fires in Napa County.
Napa County OES officials said smoke may be visible in eastern Napa County, but no threats from the Quail Fire have been identified and no evacuations have been ordered in Napa County.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Bay City News contributed to the report.
