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Cal Fire and Kern County craft took water from Frazier Mountain Park’s pond to fight the Sunday fire.
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Abbe Gore shot this plane laying fire retardant near Cold Springs Trail Sunday, Aug. 1 above Frazier Park, not far from the former Scott fire site.
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Chuck Noble’s photos showed helicopters making water drops on the Grapevine median fire near Fort Tejon on Tuesday, Aug. 3 about 5 p.m.
By Mountain Enterprise staff and Community Reporters
Massive resources rolled out to fight two small Mountain Community fires this week. The message is clear: the authorities are vigilant after two blazes near Tehachapi at the end of July burned thousands of acres, caused over 2,500 people to evacuate and resulted in the loss of homes.
On Sunday, Aug. 1 the U.S. Forest Service quickly called in a fixed wing craft to drop retardant to box in a fire near Cold Springs Trail in Shooters Canyon of Frazier Park. Two helicopters dumped water from Frazier Mountain Park pond on the blaze. Engines and crews raced up the extension of West End Drive that runs up into Shooters Canyon north of the Frazier Park fire station. Smoke, but no flames, were visible in Frazier Park. The fire burned about five acres and was contained and mopped up by Monday.
Then, on Tuesday, Aug. 3 at about 4:45 p.m., Kern County Fire Department responded to a call for a vegetation fire in the center divider of Interstate 5, near Fort Tejon. About 30 firefighters fought the fire. Water drops were made by KCFD helicopter 407.
The fire started in the center median of I-5 and travelled at a moderate rate of spread uphill through very steep terrain and heavy vegetation. According to a release from public information officer Sean Collins, crews battled intensely against the hazardous conditions.
Traffic was stopped in the fast lane in both directions. A Cal Fire strike team that was passing by stopped and assisted KCFD to contain the fire to approximately 5 acres. Crews remained on scene for several hours to ensure the fire was completely extinguished.
No structures were damaged by the fire and there are no reported injuries. The cause of the fire is still undetermined.
Our thanks to Scott Rembac, Joyce Garrett, Cliff Kelling, Abbe Gore, David Schindler and Chuck Noble, all community reporters who helped Sara Woerter of The Mountain Enterprise staff provide breaking news reports on the fires at www.MountainEnterprise.com.
The Kern County Fire Department’s Collins wishes to remind motorists to slow down and be considerate of firefighters working at the edge of the roadway in fire situations.
“Smokey conditions reduce visibility, making it dangerous to both firefighters and motorists,” he said.
This is part of the August 06, 2010 online edition of The Mountain Enterprise.
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