The State - News from May 12, 1987

Firefighters contained two blazes that had blackened 1,770 acres of the coastal mountain range in western Stanislaus County. “We got favorable weather overnight,” said Glenn Bass, a state Department of Forestry spokesman. “It was cool last night with no treacherous, shifty winds that we sometimes get in that neck of the woods.” A fire near Patterson that eventually spread to 1,470 acres was ignited Thursday when high winds caused power lines to arc, Bass said. The second fire, east of Henry Coe Park, was caused by a lightning strike and covered 300 acres. It was 35 miles south of the first blaze.