Hawk Drops Snake on Power Lines, Sparking Brush Fire

A hungry hawk dropped a 3-foot gopher snake onto a 16,000-volt electrical line in Moorpark on Tuesday, sparking a brush fire that briefly endangered several luxury homes.

Half a dozen residents who live in the posh Campus Park neighborhood called 911 at about 10 a.m. after spotting flames and smoke rising from a hillside near the intersection of Monroe and Pecan avenues.

“Typically, these are started more often by squirrels or birds. A snake is pretty rare,” said Rudy Gonzales, a spokesman for Southern California Edison.

Edison crews worked for three hours to restore power, which was knocked out for thousands of homes.

According to fire officials, the blaze was held to five acres because homeowners had done an exceptionally good job of removing brittle, flammable material from the hillsides surrounding their homes.

“Brush clearance was a major factor in keeping this fire small,” said Joe Luna, a spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department.

The blaze was the fifth brush fire since fire season started earlier this month.

It was the second in the county to be sparked by an animal that landed on live power lines.

On June 19, a bird hit a power line in the upscale Lexington Hills development in nearby Thousand Oaks, sparking a three-acre fire that also endangered several homes.

Karen Bouvet, who lives on Monroe Avenue with her husband and son, said a couple of acres were charred on the same Moorpark hill about two years ago when a bird landed on a power wire.

Tuesday’s fire occurred when a normally harmless, brownish reptile landed on the live line, causing a spark that hit the ground and ignited some grass, authorities said.

The snake, which is quite common in the neighborhood’s wide-open expanses, was found headless and coiled around the top of a power pole.

A team of 50 firefighters battled the blaze with the help of a water-dropping helicopter that landed nearby and loaded up from a hydrant.

“When [firefighters] got on scene, they reported seeing a fire that was about the size of a football field and moving uphill,” Luna said.

Even without a discernible wind, flames moved swiftly up the hillside and over the crest, coming within about 100 feet of several large Mediterranean-style homes.

Joel Bronkowski was alone at his parents’ home when he spotted flames moving toward the house and called his father, who came home, said Bouvet, a friend of the Bronkowski family.

Ground crews dug a line that stopped the blaze in its tracks, preventing it from reaching any homes.

The fire was extinguished in about an hour, Luna said.

About 2,800 customers lost power for at least 30 seconds, and, of those, about a dozen were powerless until shortly after 1 p.m., when power was completely restored, Gonzales said.

Luna urged homeowners to complete any unfinished weed abatement--particularly with the Fourth of July holiday next week and the fire threat from illegal fireworks.