Crews contain grass fire at Dublin Army Reserve base
DUBLIN, Calif. (KTVU) -- A fire at the Camp Parks Army Reserve Base in Dublin was 100 percent contained early Tuesday evening after the fire burned more than 250 acres.
No one was hurt and no buildings were damaged, but how the fire began is a mystery.
“The training area where the fire started was just grassland. There were no soldiers training there, they were in the classrooms,” said Lt. Col. Andrew Jones, Camp Parks Garrison Commander.
Jones said at any given time there are usually about 900 soldiers on the base doing training exercises, but none of them were in the area where the fire began. The fire started around 11:30 a.m.
On the ground and from the air, local, state and army base firefighters battled the blaze together. A plume of black smoke could be seen for miles. Just when firefighters thought they had it under control, the fire jumped and re-ignited in another area of the base.
“The wind picked up, blew the fire out behind them and it took off on us again,” said Alameda County Fire Division Chief Alan Evans.
By 1:30 p.m., firefighters from the Army base, Cal Fire, Livermore, Pleasanton, San Ramon and Alameda county were battling the flames again.
One of the biggest challenges for firefighters were the weather conditions with hot, 100 degree temperatures, low humidity and unpredictable, shifting winds.
One CalFire firefighter went to the hospital for heat exhaustion. He is expected to be ok.
People who live in neighborhoods down hill from the base, in the Tassajara area of Dublin, watched the fire anxiously.
“It moved fast,” said Roxanna Ebarhard of Pleasanton. “It started coming down the hills. It was down to the bottom in less than ten minutes.”
San Ramon and Alameda County Fire had engines on guard in neighborhoods in case the fire spread.
“Embers could fly, land somewhere else and it could take off. There's always that possibility,” said Evans.
Mother nature made conditions tough during the firefight, but human interference created complications.
Just as CalFire was about to start air drops on the flames, Evans noticed a drone hovering overhead.
“It’s extremely dangerous,” Evans said of personal drones flying in the area of a fire. “You can get in the airspace of helicopters or aircraft and it can cause disaster.”
Dublin police Lt. Herb Walters said there were two drones interfering with the firefight Tuesday afternoon. Police found one pilot and told him to ground his drone. The drone pilot was not cited or detained. The second drone pilot was never found.