Firefighters contain vegetation fire near Sutter's Landing
Smoke is expected to be seen throughout the evening
Smoke is expected to be seen throughout the evening
Smoke is expected to be seen throughout the evening
Firefighters battled a vegetation fire that burned about 28 acres near Sutter's Landing and put out a lot of smoke on Wednesday, authorities said.
The fire started near Sutter's Landing and 28th Street, the Sacramento Fire Department said on social media. It is fully contained, however smoldering and smoke are expected to continue throughout the night, authorities said.
Smoke could be seen billowing above the fire and caused traffic slowdowns on both sides of Business 80 according to Sacramento Fire Department.
The fire started on the south side of the American River, but jumped to the north side when hot embers – picked up by wind gusts – landed in the brush across the river, authorities said.
"You don't need much of a wind to push some of that hot debris and it's gonna catch anything that it touches on fire real easily," said Sacramento Fire Department Captain Keith Wade.
Of particular concern to fire crews as they battled the flames was the safety of a train trestle with a train stopped on it and nearby energy transmission lines.
"The trestle is a critical infrastructure piece that we never want to get damaged or burned as well as utility transmission lines that come through this area," Wade said. "As of early reports they're telling us none of that stuff was damaged."
Firefighters will be in the area throughout the night to ensure fire control, authorities said.
LiveCopter 3 video showed air and ground crews working to put out the blaze near the American River.
It's unclear what caused the fire. Fire investigators are currently on the south side of the river near Sutter's Landing looking into how the fire started.
"People's first impulse is to assume that people experiencing homelessness are the ones to blame," Wade explained. "Sometimes that's the cause. A lot of times these are undetermined because there's no reliable witness or something that tells us exactly how it started."
KCRA's Fire Threat Index
KCRA 3’s weather team has developed a new tool the team will be using to keep you informed as fire conditions change. It’s called the Fire Threat Index. This will give you an idea of the fire risk on any given day in different areas of our coverage region so you can plan ahead.
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