Crane Explodes, Spills Burning Fuel in Forest : Environment: Quick action by firefighters averts brush fire on Ortega Highway. A broken hydraulic line is believed responsible for accident.

A crane at a bridge renovation project in the remote Ronald W. Caspers Regional Park nature preserve exploded into a ball of flame Wednesday morning, spilling burning fuel and prompting fears of a possible widespread brush fire.

Winding Ortega Highway was closed for about 15 minutes while firefighters labored to stem the flow of the burning fuel, which was crawling toward the San Juan Creek riverbed, and put out the flames before they could ignite the tinder-dry brush.

Luckily, they said, quick response and the lack of high winds prevented the incident from touching off a brush fire.

“Heck yes, it could have been bad,” Orange County Fire Department Capt. Craig Casey said.

The 8 a.m. explosion occurred about 12 miles from Interstate 5. No one was injured, officials said.

Casey said the County Fire Department dispatched four engines and a water tank to douse the flames before they got out of hand, and the U.S. Forest Service also sent six engines to the fire scene.

“Even though we had some rain, this brush is still very volatile,” Casey said as firefighters mopped up. “That’s why we had everybody here.”

Crane operator Kane Putt, 22, an employee of R.E. Hazard Construction Co., said he was part of a crew that was digging out the old wall of the 1930s-era Hot Springs Canyon Bridge.

Under contract with Caltrans, the construction company has been working since last spring to widen the bridge and add 10-foot shoulders on either side of the road leading up to the span, Caltrans inspector Ken Bui said.

Putt said he had just swung the shovel-nosed crane around to drop a load of freshly dug dirt when the crane unexpectedly lost power. Putt hopped out of the crane’s small cab, opened the cowling to the diesel engine to investigate and saw that the engine had caught fire.

Suddenly, Putt said, he heard four “mini-explosions,” and the crane became engulfed in flames.

“I’ve never seen anything like that before,” said Putt, a New Zealand native who has operated cranes for four years.

A later inspection revealed that the fire was probably sparked when a hydraulic line broke and sprayed the highly volatile fluid onto the engine’s exhaust manifold.

About 180 gallons of hydraulic fluid and another 200 gallons of diesel fuel spilled from the burning crane, prompting fire officials to notify the Coast Guard, the state Department of Fish and Game, the county Health Services Agency and the Environmental Management Agency, County Fire Capt. Dan Young said.

“We couldn’t allow that diesel fuel to soak into the ground,” Young said. “It would have caused all sorts of (environmental) problems. There’s always potential for long-term damage.”

Inspectors determined that there was no contamination of the underground water table, Young said.

Caltrans, concerned about possible mishaps during the bridge-widening project, installed a temporary traffic signal at the bridge on Monday to control traffic. The normally two-lane highway had been reduced to one lane at the site, Bui said.

U.S. Forest Service personnel, based less than 100 yards from the scene of Wednesday’s fire, responded in seconds, officials said. About 15 minutes later, the first county fire crews showed up, officials said.

The fire was put out at about 10 a.m.

While county firefighters laid a thick blanket of foam on the sizzling fuel, Forest Service personnel hurriedly cleared back and watered down the nearby brush to ensure that the flames would not spread onto the hillside.

Crews also dug a deep dike to contain the burning hydraulic fluid and prevent its reaching the brush or the dry creek bed below the bridge. The diesel fuel was allowed to burn itself out, Young said.

Fire crews and the EMA will dig out the contaminated soil to “put the environment back to its natural state,” Young said.