Wind-whipped wildfires close freeways, create havoc Sunday in Sacramento area

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Wind-whipped grass fires created havoc Sunday on two Sacramento freeways, including one blaze that burned several abandoned cars on Interstate 5 in North Natomas, and another in Rancho Cordova that briefly set residential backyard fences on fire.

U.S. Highway 50 was later closed in the mountains near Kyburz due to a downed electrical wire.

One fire in Natomas, which sparked around 1 p.m. and burned for more than three hours, jumped from fields near Arena Boulevard onto the I-5 median, sending thick walls of smoke across the road. It forced closure of the freeway and nearby Interstate 80 for several hours while nearly 100 firefighters fought spot blazes that were jumping for several miles southward along the freeway.

When the fire was out, crews found three abandoned cars torched alongside the freeway. One man who pulled over to clear the way for emergency vehicles escaped his car just before it caught fire.

Sacramento fire officials said there were no reported injuries.

Fire department spokesman Capt. Keith Wade said fire officials found a damaged and burned wall at the Hilton Garden Inn on Advantage Court, and burn scars in the hotel parking lot. He said the department was still investigating the cause of the fire.

“Luckily there is no neighborhood here it could have gotten into because we could have had a real problem,” Wade said.

Blown by winds, the fire jumped from spot to spot for more than three miles, Wade said, and burned southward to San Juan Road, where firefighters set up a southern boundary to stop the fire from jumping I-80 into South Natomas neighborhoods.

Sacramento City Councilwoman Angelique Ashby said firefighters felt they had the fire largely under control through most of the afternoon, but were repeatedly forced to tackle spot fires caused by embers in the wind.

Although there were no evacuations, the fire caused some fear among residents.

Anthony Jones, who lives in an apartment complex a block from San Juan Road, breathed a sigh of relief as the smoke lifted. He was out on the road, watching the fire and relaying cellphone messages to his family, who were packing up valuables in case they would have to flee.

“I was just worried it would jump (the road) here,” he said. “There were some flames right here.”

Jennifer Kingbird, who lives in South Natomas, was unable to get home from some errands Sunday after the fire started. So, she stood on the San Juan Road overpass watching and worrying.

“I’m praying they get it contained ... and we don’t have to get evacuated,” she said.

She said her mother, visiting from Minnesota, was in the house and reports the neighborhood was blanketed in smoke for awhile.

“You don’t see that too often around here,” Jones said.

Several other brush and grass fires have been reported Sunday afternoon in the Sacramento metropolitan area, including a vegetation fire on U.S. Highway 50 in Rancho Cordova near Mather Field Road that briefly jumped a sound wall and singed some residential back fences.

A fire helicopter crew reports residents were fighting the fire in their backyards. Crews, however, were able to put the fire out within a half-hour. Officials said they did not yet know the cause of the fire.

No structures were damaged in the three-plus acre fire, Sacramento Metro Fire Department spokesman Capt. Chris Vestal said.

“It’s been a busy day,” Vestal said. “The winds are supposed to calm down a little bit but they’re supposed to go on for a little bit longer, so we anticipate we’ll be acting like this until tomorrow.”

Strong winds roiled public transit, sent a tree tumbling onto I-80 in Davis, and and knocked out power throughout the day to tens of thousands of Sacramento-area residents. A Yolo County fire briefly forced a Capitol Corridor train to stop.

A downed power line forced closure of Highway 50 around 4:20 p.m. in the mountains near Kyburz on the way to south Tahoe, Caltrans officials said. The incident did not cause a fire, officials said.

The National Weather Service said wind gusts in the Sacramento area at times hit 55 miles per hour Sunday. Those winds are expected to die down a bit by Monday afternoon and into the evening, but weather service forecasters say Tuesday and Wednesday could see critical fire conditions and gusty winds.

“We have heard numerous reports of trees and power lines down,” the weather service’s Sacramento office said in a tweet.

The hectic day caused confusion, notably as the power went on and off during the day in many areas of the region, even though they were not part of the weekend’s purposeful PG&E blackouts.

As a result of the weather outages, the Davis Police Department’s non-emergency phone lines were experiencing difficulties and warned that calls to the dispatch center may not go through.

Meanwhile, the Sacramento Municipal Utility District reported more than 40 weather-related power outages affecting tens of thousands of customers in Sacramento County, with a large cluster in Natomas reaching more than 12,000 customers at one point near noon.

“SMUD crews are out restoring power safely and as soon as possible,” the local utility said in a tweet.

Nearly 5,000 customers were still without power as of 6 p.m., including more than 1,000 in Arden Arcade. Most of the outages were wind-related, but three cars hitting poles caused morning outages, SMUD said in a tweet. Roughly 40,000 SMUD customers lost power at some point throughout the day.

As of 11 a.m., Sacramento Regional Transit light rail lines were closed after trees fell over tracks. RT’s blue line was down between 13th Street and its Cosumnes River College station, and its gold line was down from 13th Street to its downtown Sacramento Valley station.

The public transit provider said in a tweet that bus bridges were in effect while crews were working on clearing the lines.

Several residents in the greater Sacramento area reported damages from the wind, mostly from fallen trees.

“Be sure to stay safe if you see any downed power lines!” the weather service said. “Treat any electric equipment as if it may still energized & keep your distance from any electrical wires.”

This story was originally published October 27, 2019 at 12:39 PM.