Fire crews extinguish hot spots all day at Grant Fire, leading to 100 percent containment

BYRON, Calif. (KTVU) - Delta winds were not nearly as strong as Wednesday's gale force winds that fueled the Grant Fire in the Byron area. Today, plenty of Cal Fire, as well as county and local fire crews, spent all day making sure nothing on the 500-acre burn area flared up again. 

“There's still some fairly significant wind in the area, so we have units on patrol, units hitting some hot spots,” said Battalion Chief Ross Macumber of Alameda County Fire.

On Wednesday, fire crews contained and conquered seven different raging fires – a remarkable effort. “Everybody who worked yesterday did an outstanding job. They worked really hard, worked until late in the evening and were able to stop it where it was. It could have been a lot worse," said Macumber. 

Cal Fire announced Thursday evening the Grant Fire is fully contained at 484 acres. 

The only things that kept this fire from running for miles and miles and miles were the great numbers of rivers, estuaries and bays that helped form the Delta. A huge water transfer bay that feeds aqueducts is two miles by two miles. It’s a body of water even wind driven fires could not overcome. 

Backed by that knowledge and air support, firefighters, confronted with blow torch winds driving waves of fire, chose to save two houses and sacrifice out buildings. 

"They went right into structure protection mode and they were actually able to save the house with a really strong, concentrated effort to push the fire past the house," said Macumber.

We couldn't help but notice several Cal Fire investigators looking along the Byron Highway road side where all the fires seemed to have started, except for one other roadside fire from yesterday three miles away up in the Altamont Pass wind mill area. 

Even the possibility of an active fire bug is a menace in this often windy area. 

"All the fuels are dried out, and with years of drought in the past, we have really dead fuels that have been around for a long time," said Macumber. “That is a prescription for potential disasters statewide.”