Crews respond to stubborn fire near Highway 166. This is what it looked like from the air
Firefighters from multiple Central Coast agencies battled a small vegetation fire off Highway 166 beginning Friday night — an effort that wound up lasting almost 16 hours.
About 6:15 p.m. Friday, personnel from the Santa Barbara County Fire Department responded to the incident west of Rock Front Ranch about 25 miles northeast of Santa Maria.
The Bison Fire initially had burned two acres, but it had the potential to grow to five acres, county fire Capt. Daniel Bertucelli said Friday.
According to the PulsePoint emergency response app, the case closed about 10 a.m. Saturday.
While the fire was in difficult terrain, crews on the ground received help from a Santa Barbara County Air Support Unit helicopter dropping water onto the flames.
No structures were threatened, Bertucelli said. The cause remained under investigation.
Also responding to the incident were personnel from the Santa Maria Fire Department and Cal Fire.
The fire initially was reported as being about 1,000 feet from the roadway, but there were no reports that the incident was affecting traffic on the two-lane highway.
Highway area prone to fires in SLO County
Just a week ago on March 18, Cal Fire was responding to multiple small fires along Highway 166.
Cal Fire Assistant Chief Josh Taylor said at the time that Caltrans hasn’t finished mowing the grass in the area, leaving a risk for roadside fires amid a lack of rain.
“With all highway areas in the county, they’re prone for fires — it just needs an ignition,” Taylor told the Tribune.
Noozhawk North County editor Janene Scully can be reached at jscully@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.
