Brush fire burns over 450 acres west of Tranquillity

Monday, June 12, 2017
450-acre grass fire in Fresno County
The fire started around 5:30 p.m. near Monterey and South Avenues and additional resources were called to battle the blaze because it had the potential of reaching 1,000 acres.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- Firefighters quickly knocked out a brush fire in Fresno County Sunday after it burned 450 acres.

The fire started around 5:30 p.m. near Monterey and South Avenues and additional resources were called to battle the blaze because it had the potential of reaching 1,000 acres.

"When I got on scene, I had approximately about 100 to 200 acres of what appears to be last year's wheat crop," said Batt. Josh Campbell with Cal Fire.

Cal fire says it grew to about 450 acres, and once they got there, they had it contained in about 30 to 40 minutes

"Part of the way we got it out was we were fortunate to have some disc lines around it from other farm equipment, and we also had some roads, so we utilized the roads to our advantage and we started putting more fire on the ground to stop the forward progress of the fire we had running at the roads," Campbell explained.

Cal Fire says before responding to the Monterey Fire, they were called to another fire in Mendota, but crews were able to put it out before he got there.

"On top of that we were dealing with high winds anywhere from 20 to 30 mile per hour winds," Campbell said.

Campbell says when it's windy, there are several things that could start fires. He says it looked like someone could have been shooting guns there - a burnt pallet was found on the ground, but he doesn't know if that's what caused it.