Firefighters Gain on Gold Country Blaze

After evacuating 550 young campers in the middle of the night, firefighters Wednesday appeared to be gaining control of a 600-acre fire that started along a creek bed near the little Gold Country town of Columbia in Tuolumne County.

Fueled by thick, dry brush and fallen trees, the fire was whipped by winds to the northeast, threatening Cedar Ridge, a subdivision of several hundred homes where an estimated 1,200 residents were evacuated as a precaution. An additional 600 homes scattered through the area could be in jeopardy, said firefighter Michael Tennyson.

By midday, the blaze was 20% contained, Tennyson said.

“The expected containment time is still unknown,” he said late Wednesday. “They’re having trouble with the steep terrain, the heavy fuel of brush and fallen trees, and the poor access. These are mostly dirt roads into the area.”

Tennyson said 984 firefighters were on the scene, including crews from the Stanislaus National Forest and the California Department of Forestry. The area of the burn straddles state, federal and privately owned land.

As of late Wednesday, the fire had claimed no lives or homes, but there were two reports of injuries, Tennyson said.

“The fire looks like it is calming down,” said Betsy Eisenhower of the Tuolumne County Office of Emergency Services.

Evacuees were relocated to the Mother Lode Fairgrounds in the town of Sonora, where Red Cross workers provided assistance.

Juanita Keith, the operations manager of the Marble Quarry RV Park five miles west of the blaze, told how a co-worker, Laurie Starkweather, was ordered out of her house late Wednesday.

“She got the kids and her pets out last night. She’s got quite a menagerie up there, a pygmy goat, a pot-bellied pig and cats and dogs. But today (the Sheriff’s Department) told her she had to get out herself, no ifs, ands or buts.”

Keith said that at that point the flames were no more than 30 feet from the Starkweather house.

First spotted along Five Mile Creek, the blaze is the latest in a series that have struck the heavily vegetated terrain of drought-stricken Northern California.

Fire crews and equipment that successfully beat back a series of fires in the Kelsey-Placerville area were being redeployed to fight the blaze near Columbia.

Of immediate concern were 450 youngsters attending church camp at Old Oak Ranch and 100 others at the Regional Learning Center operated by the Clovis Unified School District. By Wednesday most of the campers had been retrieved by their parents.

In Columbia, about five miles away from blaze, printer Robert Noler, 61, an employee of the Columbia Gazette visitors’ guide, said plumes of smoke were clearly visible all day as fire crews and equipment rumbled through the small town.

“It’s quite a sight to see those big Huey helicopters roaring over town, headed for the blaze, with their loads of water,” Noler said. “More excitement around here than we’ve seen in years.”