Fire scorches 600 acres in Santa Cruz Mountains

EUREKA CANYON -- High winds whipped through the Santa Cruz Mountains on Sunday morning, fueling a 600-acre wildfire that broke out about 3 a.m. in the Summit area of the Santa Cruz Mountains in an area drenched by rain less than two weeks ago.
More than 900 firefighters were on scene by nightfall, with hundreds more expected this morning.
"We had the 10 inches of rain up here but the fuel moistures are low. So if you give it the opportunity" to burn, it will burn, said Alex Leman, chief of Loma Prieta Fire. "We had some pretty strong winds up here this morning. It was howling. That gave the fire quite a bit of energy."
The fire, which started near Loma Prieta Way in Santa Clara County, jumped the county line and burned along Loma Prieta Way, spreading into Eureka Canyon, above Highland Way.
One home trailer and two outbuildings were destroyed, Battalion Chief Jim Crawford of Cal Fire said. About 160 homes remain threatened. By 9 p.m. the blaze was about 20 percent contained, but mandatory evacuations remained in place.
The cause of the blaze has not been determined. But Crawford said one area where the investigation will focus is the activity of inmate crews from the Ben Lomond Conservation Camp who had been working in the fire area as recently as Friday.
The work, which has taken place since the 1980s, involves clearing fuel breaks, maintaining trails and roads, and sometimes burning piles of debris on the Santa Clara County  side of Summit Road as part of upkeep of the Llagas-Uvas watershed, Crawford said. He said he did not know if the crews had been burning debris recently or if they had caused the fire. Battalion Chief Ken McGeever of Santa Clara Fire confirmed the activity, saying, "Yes, they were up in this area doing some pile burning."
Corralitos Fire said they canceled two controlled burns scheduled last week.
Winds whipped through the mountains Sunday morning, hitting 40 mph. With 15 percent humidity, the conditions caused the fire to spread quickly, Crawford said. While the wind died down in mid-afternoon, it kicked up again in late afternoon.
The area burning, generally between Summit Road and Highland Way in rugged chaparral northeast of the Forest of Nisene Marks State Park, received a drenching of rain less than two weeks ago. Mount Madonna received 8.1 inches of rain in a 24-hour period, and Loma Prieta received 9.2 inches, during massive storms on Oct. 13 and 14.
But, Crawford said, the rain did not soak trees and brush to the core. Rather, it drenched the leaves. Then, during 10 sunny days afterward, the foliage dried and strong winds and low humidity made conditions more fire-prone.
"They may have gotten rained on, but the inside part didn't get real moist," he said.
It will take a sustained winter season of rain for large trees and bushes to fully absorb moisture, he added.
Dozens of fire trucks were stationed on Summit Road during the afternoon as firefighters took their gear down a steep ravine. Armed with chain saws and backpacks, the firefighters made a strong stand. Two were injured.
Just before the fire area on Summit Road, a sign said fire danger is "low."
"The winds have died substantially so it's just kind of skunking around," Leman said of the fire. "It's rough terrain, extremely steep and we're having trouble getting engines in. The irony is that this road Highland was closed last week due to slides, now it's closed due to wildfire. We'd expect that order to be reversed."
The Loma Fire is burning in the same region as the devastating 2008 Summit Fire, which charred 4,200 acres and destroyed 63 homes and 69 outbuildings. The Summit Fire burned for five days and caused $14.85 million in damage.
As the winds died down during the afternoon, firefighters were trying to hold the fire and drive it down to the more moist areas of Eureka Canyon.
Dozens of helicopters and air tankers doused ridge lines to keep the fire from spreading.
Crawford said they hoped to get a handle on the fire by Sunday night when the winds die down. Winds are expected to kick up today around 40 mph.
"We have a lot of resources coming to get a line around it," Cal Fire Battalion Chief Mike Borelli in Felton said.
Fire officials expected 1,200 firefighters from across the state to help put out the blaze.
More than 100 homes were evacuated around 6:15 a.m. via phone on Highland Way, Eureka Canyon, Loma Prieta Way and Ormsby Cutoff. Sheriff's deputies visited about 150 homes, Crawford said.
Not everyone left.
Diane Zulliger, who has lived in the mountains for 33 years with her husband, two cats and a dog, said they were alerted to the fire by a neighbor at 4 a.m. They had returned home from a nine-day cruise only two hours earlier.
"It's not something you want to come home to," she said from their home on Loma Prieta Way.
Zulliger said she was prepared to evacuate, something she hasn't had to do since the Lexington Fire in 1985.
Incident command was set up at the Santa Cruz County Fairgrounds in Watsonville.
"The biggest thing is the weather and wind, and some areas are inaccessible," McGeever said. "We're making some good progress. The winds have calmed down from the morning so they're in our favor. The humidity has been dropping, which makes it hard."
Ken Kim, whose property on Maymens Flat burned last year, said, "We always have fear in the back of our minds about fire."
Kim, who is in the process of rebuilding his home, said, "I woke up seeing red flashes on the wall. I knew it shouldn't be that way and a minute after I saw it I smelled brush burning. It was really scary."
Kim had been up since 4 a.m.
"I stayed up to make sure it wasn't going to come toward me," he said.
At 3000 Summit Road, Gilroy city firefighters worked to protect a single-family home.
They arrived at 6 a.m. to find flames roaring up the hill within inches of the two-story house under construction after the previous house burned last year. They prevented the fire from getting to the house, though the solar panels were singed.
Gilroy firefighters Jim Dempsey and Steven Hayes hosed the deck and house from a hillside below.
"We see gray ash that can stay hot for weeks. We're trying to get a cool line around this house," Dempsey said.
The residents evacuated before firefighters arrived.
Capt. Tim Price of Gilroy said they were among the first firefighters on the scene Sunday morning.
"There was a big ball of fire when we arrived this morning. That house would have burned if we weren't here," Price said.
Fifteen inmates from the Department of Corrections worked to cut a line down the side of the hill to stop the fire.
Ian McClelland, who lives off Summit Road on Maymens Flat, said he's lived in the area since 1987. His house was destroyed in the 2008 fire.
"I was victim No. 1 in the Summit Fire," said McClelland, outside his Airstream trailer.
He said the recent storm that dumped at least 10 inches of rain on the Santa Cruz Mountains wasn't enough to keep the fire at bay.
Dave Krug, caretaker of property off Ormsby Cutoff Road, said flames shot 50 feet in the air and the whole sky lit up red.
"We were thinking, deja vu, do we have to go through this again?'" Krug said.
His property on Ormsby burned last year.
By Sunday afternoon, the fire burned north of Uvas and Highland Way and south of Loma Prieta Way in an area called Rattlesnake Gulch.
An evacuation center was set up at the Corralitos Community Center on Browns Valley Road, but went unused, said Lee Yamada, disaster services chairman for the American Red Cross. The center was opened around 6:30 a.m. and closed four hours later.
"We're a pretty resilient people," he said. "Evacuees have friends and relatives they can go to. Two families came to the Summit Store on Summit Road near the Burrell Fire Station. They declined our assistance. They were hoping to be able to get back into their home because the fire had not gotten to them."
The National Weather Service Office in Monterey predicted the 40 mph winds that blew the fire around the canyon would die down Sunday night, giving firefighters an edge in battling the blaze. But the wind could return today, meteorologist Will Pi said.
Firefighters also will see a cool-down, with highs reaching to the upper 60s, he said.
Temperatures around the county on Sunday were in the 70s, with Watsonville reaching 75 degrees, Santa Cruz hitting 76 degrees and Ben Lomond seeing a high of 72 degrees.
The humidity is expected to drop below 15 percent, Pi said.
"It will go low and stay low," Pi said.
As for rain later this week, "that's still up in the air," he said.
Source santacruzsentinel.com