Cal Fire: Standard area blaze set by torch

Welding equipment is believed to have caused a 5 acre fire that sent a giant plume of smoke over the Standard area Thursday, according to Cal Fire officials.

The cost of the damage has not been yet determined, said Cal Fire Capt. Paul Avila.

The fire, reported at 1:10 p.m., closed Standard Road and prompted Sierra Pacific Industries’ Standard Mill employees to leave work early for the day.
   

It was sparked by SPI employees who were working on electrical power to a pumping station, said Dennis Townsend, Cal Fire bureau chief of law enforcement and fire prevention.

In addition to burning 5 acres, sparks ignited two small spot fires in the area east of the mill.

“We have winds, so we got the spots,” Cal Fire Battalion Chief Barry Rudolph said Thursday, as a helicopter made rounds, dumping water on the flames. “Fuels are dry.”

There were no evacuations and no structures threatened, he said.

The fire was reported at 1:10 p.m.

The main fire spread up the hill east of the mill. Sparks landed east of Standard Road, burning about a tenth of an acre. A second spot fire started near Curtis Creek School and burned a 20-foot-by-30-foot spot fire.

The fire sent a dark plum of smoke over the area. Flames were visible from Camage Avenue jumping from thick brush and trees.

Sierra Pacific Industries closed operations for the day about 1:30 p.m. so firefighters could use the lot where employees park their cars, said Mark Luster, spokesman for SPI.

“The parking lot wasn’t threatened, but the fire department needed access,” he said.

There was only an hour and a half left in their shift.

“The fire department did a great job ... There was really no concern,” Luster said.

Firefighters later moved onto a second fire that burned two acres between Cavaleri Road and Curtis Creek School. Firefighters were unsure if the second fire was related to the first.

“That’s what we’re trying to figure out — if it was something that carried over there or not,” Rudolph said.

Responding were Cal Fire, Tuolumne County Fire, Sonora City Fire, Cal Fire’s Columbia Air Attack, Baseline Camp and U.S. Forest Service.

On the second fire, Tuolumne Fire Protection District also responded.