Grass fires investigators say may have been started by a backfiring car burned over 300 acres on and around Lime Ridge Open Space along Ygnacio Valley Rd. in Concord Friday.
The fire was close to 90 percent contained by 10:30 p.m., according to fire officials, with firefighters remaining on the scene to prevent any flareups.
Approximately 200 residents of the Crystyl Ranch and Montecito subdivisions were allowed to return home this evening following mandatory evacuations
earlier in the day.
The initially separate fires were first reported (3:40 p.m.) and began burning as firefighters were dealing with a 2-alarm blaze burning property on Bethel Island. Aerial support battling that easternmost fire appear to have been shifted to fight the Concord fires – which was declared a 4-alarm blaze at 4 p.m.
Road closures were swiftly put in place, with Walnut Creek police closing Ygnacio Valley Road at Oak Grove to prevent citizens from interfering with emergency vehicles and other key intersections have been shut down.
Citizens are reporting thick smoke in the area with fire and police going door to door to advise people to leave their homes. Dozens of neighbors from the Crystyl Ranch and Montecito neighborhoods were asked to leave their homes.
Two firefighters sustained minor injuries while fighting the blaze.
Evacuees were advised to re-unite at Centre Concord, where they would be updated as to conditions and informed when they could return home.
Lets just hope we don’t get another one of those.
Amen to that…
Thanks for the flash
You betcha… hope it helped!
Jussssst a little too close
It got all quiet and then BAMMO an air tanker came over and dropped the pink shit all over the neighbors!
Thanks for stopping to answer my sons questions during this fire on Montecito. He was really nervous!
You bet, Barb! Tell him “hey” from NEWS24/680!
Great job, firefighters!! We soooo appreciate you.
Thank you everyone for all your hard work today!
followed you on twitter. thanks for the updates.
Good move! You bet!
Hopefully not an indication of things to come.
Amen to that, Dan!
No more of this. My nerves can’t take it.
They are still up there. I can see their lights.
Yes. Looking for anything glowing.
Pretty crazy. Glad everyone ok
You had my full and undivided attention for four hours.
Nice to have you with us – even if all that acreage had to burn in order to get it!
Thank you to everyone who came to help.
My phone wouldn’t stop buzzing from those alerts!!
It was just us asking you to pick up some bread and wine from the store!
Traffic was crazy. One guy jumped a curb to get around people in his truck. Hope we never had a REALLY big emergency.
We know what you mean!
Scary!
Saw the cloud of smoke from Orinda. Amazing no homes were lost.
Let’s have no more of those!
Done!
This was one angry looking fire. The view of it from Taylor Blvd was really scary even though it seemed to be moving east. Then we started getting these strange phone messages (not yours) telling us to stay in place. Really frightening.
Right. We take no responsibility for the warning systems and inbound missile alerts of others!
Why is there a chopper flying over Lamorinda as we speak?
Let’s climb into the NEWS24/680 Control Tower and see if we can raise them. “Unidentified aircraft, unidentified aircraft… Whiskey Tango Foxtrot are you doing in our air space, over? We’ve had a big fire down here and the natives are jumpy!” (It’s a private air service, probably doing overflights for real estate/government entities.) “NEWS24680, out… Talleyho!”
Still seeing smoke out there!!