Firefighters in Placer County controlled a series of spot fires Thursday on hillsides on the outskirts of Loomis before flames could reach any homes.
Placer County Sheriff's Capt. Dave Harris said Calfire officials are trying to determine whether the "three to five" fires that burned a combined nine acres were caused by arson or by sparks from a train that may have passed in the area.
"The fires were all along the railroad tracks," he said.
Harris said dispatchers received three calls about fires in the area of Sierra College Boulevard from English Colony Way to Delmar Avenue at 11:35 a.m.
"We don't know if they were reporting different fires or whether they were all the same fire," he said.
Calfire and other fire departments in the area teamed up to have the fires under control by about 12:15 p.m. Two airplanes dropping fire retardant assisted in the effort, Harris said.
Residents of about two dozen homes on the hillsides were evacuated, Harris said. There were no reports of structures burned or of injuries to people or animals, he said.
Susan Briggs, whose home is on Boulder Ridge Road at the top of the hillside above Delmar Avenue, was in downtown Loomis when a neighbor called to report that fire was threatening her house.
By the time she arrived in the area, firefighters had stopped the blaze.
"There's always a threat of fire because we live up high on the ridge," she said. "But it's well-sprinklered and we cut the brush around our house for defensible space. We know about fire."
A neighboring home also had defensible space, Harris noted.
"The fire was burning uphill toward the owner's house but he had cleared the brush," the captain said. "It probably saved his house."
Calfire was joined in the firefighting effort by the fire departments or districts of Loomis, Penryn, Rocklin, Penryn and South Placer.
Call The Bee's Art Campos, (916) 773-2825.
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