Groveland Fire 90% Contained; 100 Acres Burned

It was the biggest brush fire that Mother Lode firefighters have dealt with so far this year, but with skill and luck, it will be contained by Saturday morning.

Ron Rumbaugh saw the fire. “It was just boiling over the hill and you´d see them just burst into flames, the trees up there. And then they´d burn a little bit more and I was afraid they´d come right down in here.”

The fire began as an escaped debris burn, with insufficient clearance, and it was during illegal hours. When the responsible party thought they´d extinguished the fire, they left, but the fire wasn´t fully out.

It eventually blackened an area of about 100 acres.

Residents of the Yosemite Vista Estates retirement community were nervous briefly. Marla Rumbaugh is the manager of the community. She says there are 51 full-time residents, “and of those units, probably five or six have people that need care to get out of here. So they´ve already been assigned a resident from up here to go to their house and to help them get out of the house, if we were to be evacuated,” Rumbaugh said.

Rumbaugh said they have a full emergency evacuation plan, which they were ready to implement, should the fire have gotten closer.

But it didn´t, and as of late Friday night, the fire was 90 percent contained, according to CDF dispatchers.

Spokeswoman Deb Fish estimated 8am Saturday for full containment.