Half-acre in Zayante burns as fire season heats up

The evening of Friday, June 21 saw 11 fire engines from four different agencies converge on the 9000 block of Zayante Drive in Felton to combat a half-acre blaze that spread across three properties.
John Stipes, chief of the Zayante Fire Protection District, said that the fire was initially reported at approximately 5:30 p.m.
When the first units arrived on-scene, he said, one building was fully ablaze and a second was partially consumed by fire.
The area of the fire, he said, was a convergence of three properties and, by the time the fire was contained at around 7 p.m., two buildings and a trailer had been completely destroyed along with half-an-acre of land. It could have been worse.
“The wind definitely cooperated with us,” Stipes said. “We could’ve been out there still fighting it right now.”
Stipes said that if the winds that had blown in San Lorenzo Valley earlier in the week had not dissipated the flames could have blown into the Zayante canyon.
Three engines from Zayante Fire responded, along with two each from Felton and Ben Lomond fire protection districts, and four from Cal Fire. A Cal Fire fixed-wing aircraft and helicopter also helped extinguish the blaze.
The fire, which Stipes said was still under investigation, could be an indicator of what many fire experts predict will be an especially tumultuous wildfire season following a relatively dry winter.
“It is definitely an indication of what could come,” Stipes said.
He said that, even with Monday’s rain, that the land would remain dry and highly flammable.
“(Conditions are) like it’s August and September already,” Stipes said. “When we actually get to August and September, it’s going to be pretty nasty.”
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