No one was injured in an early-morning house fire that that severely damaged a Scotts Valley home last week.
A 2,000-square-foot home with a three-car garage on Alto Sol Court, off Whispering Pines Drive, caught fire at about 2:15 a.m. Friday, Sept. 9. The fire likely started on a deck behind the house.
Although fire investigators have not yet ruled out all causes, one possibility, said Scotts Valley Fire Chief Mike McMurry, was that it started with a barbecue that had been used earlier in the day.
“It was an accidental fire,” McMurry said.
Smoke alarms woke up the couple who lived in the house, and they escaped without any injuries.
“(One of the residents) wanted to make sure that we asked that people check their smoke detectors, because smoke detectors really saved their life,” McMurry said. “Those things really do work.”
The two-alarm blaze drew firefighters from the Scotts Valley, city of Santa Cruz, Felton, Zayante, Branciforte, Central and Aptos-La Selva fire districts and took about 45 minutes to knock down, McMurry said. There were firefighters on scene until 9 a.m. to make sure the fire did not spread to nearby homes in the residential neighborhood.
“Neighboring homes were threatened,” McMurry said, noting that one crew was specifically assigned to drive around the neighborhood to ensure that falling embers did not ignite.
Foggy, wind-less conditions helped keep the blaze from spreading to nearby pine trees or homes.
This is the second house fire in Scotts Valley this season. A home on La Cuesta Drive partly burned in April.
McMurry stressed the importance of clearing proper defensible space around homes and disposing of ashes from fireplaces and barbecues properly in a metal container. He also noted that checking fire alarms is important.
Scotts Valley firefighters lend hand in Southern California
On Saturday night, the Scotts Valley Fire Protection District sent an engine and a battalion chief to Kern County to help battle the Keene Fires, which are blazing in the area. Lightening strikes set multiple areas on fire, and Scotts Valley’s crew was battling a 200-acre fire in the Bakersfield area, McMurry said.
Federal Emergency Management Agency money will help pay for fighting the fire that, as of Monday, had burned more than 25,000 acres and caused evacuations for more than 16,500 people. The fire was threatening 250 homes in the Bear Valley, Golden Hills, Hart Flats and Keene communities.
