*Updated at 3:11pm
Smoke could be seen billowing up above Scotts Valley as firefighters raced down Green Hills Road to investigate.
The call came in at 12:41pm today and turned out to be a vegetation fire of less than an acre, confirmed Division Chief Sam Filson with Cal Fire CZU.
“Crews are making progress,” Filson said around 1:30pm. “We don’t have it controlled yet. We’re working on containment.”
Green Hills Road was closed in both directions.
Scotts Valley, Central, Santa Cruz City and Felton fire departments were also responding.
By 2:10pm, the fire was deemed under control, said Scotts Valley Police Department Lt. Meredith Roberts, describing the terrain through which the flames spread.
“It was heavy duff,” she said, noting firefighters were on scene right away. “They were out here very quick.”
Crews used hand tools to mop up the scene.
Roberts said it would take probably another 2-3 hours after the fire was controlled to put it out entirely.
“We’re up a mountainside,” she said.
Bill Ekwall, a retired Santa Clara County firefighter who lives nearby, came to check out the happenings.
“It’s in a very strange spot,” he said. “There’s no power lines up there.”
Any time fire ignites so close to town in the middle of the summer it’s concerning, he added.
“Not very much wind—which saved the fire,” he said. “It sounds like they got a really good handle on it.”
LightSpeed Martial Arts Academy had to send kids home early because of the incident.
Courtney Polito, 40, lives even closer to the fire than Ekwall.
“I’m terrified,” she said. “It can easily…go along the back there.”
Polito learned how much a fire can upend your life, when her garage caught fire not that long ago.
She said her kids have told her about a homeless man living up in the woods.
“He’s been up there for a while,” she said.
After the fire began, her neighbor told her the man’s stuff had been sitting in a different place than its prior encampment spot earlier in the day.
The SVPD says the cause is under investigation, but confirmed they’re looking into the possibility an unhoused person sparked the blaze.
