2,250-acre Loma Fire creeps into Santa Cruz County, displaces hundreds

Sept. 28--SANTA CRUZ MOUNTAINS -- Hundreds of firefighters endured sweltering heat and shifty winds to keep the fierce-burning Loma Fire from crossing too far into the Santa Clara-Santa Cruz county line Tuesday.

The aggressive blaze, which originated from a structure fire on Loma Chiquita Road at 2:45 p.m. Monday, grew to 2,250 acres by Tuesday evening, destroying one structure, damaging another and forcing hundreds of residents to flee their homes. Cal Fire described the fire as 10 percent contained at 7 p.m.

"In the first 24 to 48, even in the first 72 hours you're going to see a huge influx of resources come in and then we can really start with boots on the ground," said Cal Fire spokesman Bud Englund. "That's how we put out that fire, really, with those boots on the ground."

The Loma Fire hasn't acted like previous fires: It took a hard run southeast, then another hard run northeast. It's rushing down canyons -- not only up them, as usual. Expanding like rings in a lake, not directed by the wind, "this is fuel-driven fire -- it doesn't need wind behind it," said Mike Martin, Cal Fire's command battalion chief.

So combustible is the landscape of drought-dried chapparal and pine that Loma Fire's "spot fires" are igniting more than a quarter mile away from the main blaze, Martin said. Some flames are unusually high, up to 60 to 70 feet tall. Other flames have burned horizontally across a wide asphalt road, sometimes for over a minute.

Early Tuesday, Battalion Chief Mike Mathiesen of Alma Helitack said the fire had doubled in size overnight.

Mathiesen said the fire was heading toward Hecker Pass Road and that fire crews were hoping to hold the southern line at Summit Road. At noon, a strong westerly wind picked up, helping the firefighters keep the fire from crossing too far into Santa Cruz County.

Throughout Tuesday, helicopters and fixed-wing planes, including a DC-10 air tanker, dropped tons of retardant along the fire's edge on Loma Prieta ridge 11 miles west of Morgan Hill.

A Cal Fire bulldozer crew spent most of Tuesday cutting a 30-foot wide swath down a steep, chaparral ridge across the drainage from Summit Road and Loma Prieta Avenue, the firefighters' staging area.

Meanwhile, hundreds of firefighters were trucked over Loma Prieta Road to fight the blaze near its source at Loma Chiquita Road. One firefighter suffered a minor eye injury and was taken to a hospital for treatment.

About 300 homes are at risk -- all along upper Summit Road, Loma Chiquita Road, Casa Loma Road, Croy Road, the rural area called Twin Falls and the cabins at the Sveadal resort at the end of a narrow wooded canyon west of Morgan Hill. A set of radio towers that repeat signals across the mountains is also in the danger zone.

The Loma Fire was ignited at the end of a long dry summer and amid five years of drought. Across the nation, daily high-temperature records were set this summer, following a winter and spring that were the warmest ever recorded.

"This year started out dry and got drier," Martin said.

As the fire threatened the network of bone dry ridges, drainages and basins surrounding the 3,790-foot elevation Loma Prieta, the highest peak in the Santa Cruz Mountains range, homeowners who hadn't yet left the area decided whether or not to pack up and go.

Cal Fire officials said Tuesday evening that one residence was destroyed and a second damaged, with a half dozen additional nonspecified "outbuildings" -- such as barns or sheds -- also razed.

But residents said at least three homes had been lost.

Norman Noble, 75, a semi-retired video circuit designer, placidly watched firefighters battle the blaze and aircraft roar overhead from beneath the brim of a rumpled fedora.

Noble, who has lived at 3300 Loma Chiquita Road for the past 25 years, said the fire is believed to have originated at his next door neighbor's house. He said he believes his own house may have burned down.

Noble originally evacuated to a neighbor's house further down Loma Chiquita Road at 4 p.m. Monday, but a few hours later vacated the area completely. He said no one had given him a time estimate on when he may return.

"I evacuated because I didn't want to get in anyone's way," Noble said.

Art, 78, and Carolyn Johnson, 70, watched the fire from a safe distance inside their Lexus SUV. The couple have lived on Loma Prieta Way for 40 years. Although their house is less than a mile from the fire line, they have decided not to evacuate.

"We have a big house and animals and our property is very defensible," Carolyn Johnson said. "They cannot legally make us leave."

The Johnsons said they have 50,000 gallons of water on the property, a pool, generators and three fire hoses. Two weeks ago ITT Hartford Insurance canceled their fire insurance policy, calling it too high risk. Fortunately, they were picked up by Farmers Insurance before the fire started, Carolyn Johnson said.

Tuesday morning, authorities told residents to leave the Loma Prieta ridge area including all tributary roads along Summit Road from Soquel San Jose Road to Ormsby Fire Station. That included Uvas Canyon County Park, Loma Chiquita, Casa Loma, Loma Prieta Way, Highland Road and Mount Bache Road. Portions of Croy Road were also under an evacuation warning.

Residents of the Swedish resort community of Sveadal near Uvas Canyon park were also told to evacuate as Croy Road was closed at Uvas Road.

Dave, a volunteer firefighter with the Casa Loma Volunteer Fire Association who didn't want his last name published, lives about a mile from where it started and said a large swath of the area now looks like a moonscape.

"It moved through so fast and so hot, everything's gone," he said.

He worked alongside Cal Fire crews through the night and said things got "really intense" when winds picked up in the early morning hours.

"That really caused it to explode; I was witnessing little fire twisters," he said, adding that Cal Fire's emphasis on defending structures likely saved many from losing all.

"Obviously our focus is life and property, so structures, homes, are a high priority for us and we're going to do structure defense and take precaution in those areas," spokesman Englund said. "Those will be the areas we work on the most."

Around 2 p.m., the fire crept over the county line north of Loma Prieta Way, according to Santa Clara fire PIO Bill Murphy.

By Tuesday afternoon, Santa Cruz County sheriff's deputies had begun the process of knocking on doors along Summit Road between Loma Prieta and Ormsby Cutoff, alerting about two dozen Santa Cruz County residences of the potential threat.

"The evacuation process at this time is purely voluntary," said Santa Cruz County sheriff's Sgt. Michael MacDonald. "We just want to know who is where and make sure they understand the situation."

Multiple residents and a Santa Clara County sheriff's deputy said several marijuana growers pulled their crops Monday night to protect them from the fire. No one was arrested.

The fire was discovered Monday before 3 p.m. when Cal Fire helicopter No. 106 spotted smoke and flames emerging "from a fully involved structure fire" while en route to an incident in Santa Cruz, according to Cal Fire spokeswoman Pam Temmermand.

She said the crew called in the fire and that the pilot dropped off several firefighters. The pilot told her that by the time the chopper was taking off "the fire was already an acre in size. And when he looked back after a bit, it was 25 acres. That's how fast it was spreading."

"They haven't determined whether it was a grass or vegetation fire that spread to the structure or if it was a structure fire that spread to the grass," said Capt. Brian Oliver of the Moraga-Orinda Fire District, another incident spokesman.

So far, California has had a relatively modest fire year, with 621,897 acres burned in 2016 through Monday on all public and privately owned lands. That ranks this year fourth out of the last 10 in acres burned through Sept. 26 and is slightly above the 10-year average of 586,237 acres statewide.

However, nearly a quarter of all the acres burned in California so far this year have been from one fire, the Soberanes Fire, which has charred 128,380 acres in Big Sur, burning mostly on remote sections of Los Padres National Forest in the past two months. That fire, started by a campfire at Garrapata State Park, is 81 percent contained, with 100 percent containment expected by this weekend.

Mandatory evacuations are still in place along the Loma Prieta ridge line, and Cal Fire's Englund urged residents to stay out of the area. The number of evacuees was not available, and no injuries have been reported. Englund said he did not know whether there would be additional evacuations.

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