Wildfire forces evacuations of dozens from homes near Fairfield
A 24-acre vegetation fire that broke out Friday afternoon near Fairfield and forced dozens of residents to evacuate the area has been tentatively contained, according to local fire and police officials.
The fire in eastern Solano County forced the county sheriff’s office to issue a mandatory evacuation for all residents living on Thommason Lane at 1:55 p.m. About an hour later, the fire had stopped progressing forward and at 3:10 p.m., the Solano County Sheriff’s Office lifted evacuation warnings.
There were no reported injuries and no structures were burned in the 4-alarm fire, according to Fairfield Police Department spokesman Sgt. Matt Bloesch.
The blaze closed down Cordelia Road between Link Road and Hale Ranch Road, as 27 engines from multiple North Bay fire departments and a Cal Fire helicopter from fire departments responded to the scene.
Cordelia Road was expected to reopen by 6 p.m. after clean-up operations have finished, Bloesch said.
James Johnson, an employee at Erickson Ranch on Cordelia Road, said that residents could see the fire just before 1 p.m.
“I woke up, smelled some smoke, went outside, and the hill was on fire,” he said.
By about 3 p.m., most of the smoke had dissipated, Bloesch said. Firefighters were on the scene hosing off smoldering hills. A farmer was on his tractor, still working in a nearby field.
The fire appeared to start on the west side of Nelson Hill, said Steve Ornbaum, who owns a nearby ranch.
“It pretty much went underneath the canopy. I see a few trees they lost but it was mostly ground cover,” Ornbaum said.
The blaze was “tentatively contained” by 3 p.m., according to Cordelia Fire Department Captain Billy Untalan.
“Firefighters are just around mopping up right now,” Bloesch said about 4 p.m.
A cause for the fire had not been released.
Northern California will be under a red flag warning throughout the weekend.
This story was originally published June 7, 2019 at 2:16 PM with the headline "Wildfire forces evacuations of dozens from homes near Fairfield."