Tehachapi News

Firefighters, neighbors stop Hart Flat flames

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In a 90-minute multi-agency attack, firefighters gained the upper hand on a potentially dangerous fire in the Hart Flat area July 1.

Two alert neighbors with a shovel and garden hose saved one home, firefighters and hand crews faced a fire burning uphill, high heat, and late afternoon winds in a terrain heavily laden with grass and scrub oak.

Hart Flat residents and neighbors Larry Renihan and Lonnie Terrell rushed to a nearby home in the 700 block of Clear Creek Road when they saw smoke coming from the nearby hillside.

Renihan and Terrell beat out the flames before the fire could overtake the home, stopping the advance just 12 feet from the structure.

Both men believe they did nothing unusual.

“We just did what we hope neighbors would do for us if we weren’t home,” both men said almost in unison.

A nearby bone yard of old dried wood and logs ignited near the house, but a favorable wind direction carried the sparks and flames away as the two men fought flames which had encircled more than three quarters of the home.

Additional firefighters responded to what had by then become a second alarm fire that was threatening many homes.

The Bureau of Land Management personnel and  a fixed wing Cal Fire retardant-dropping plane responded to the fire along with Kern County Fire.

Along with its two spotter planes. Kern County Fire Department personnel included multiple engines and patrol trucks from most of eastern Kern County as well as Keene, Tehachapi and Stallion Springs.

Kern County Helicopter 408, which had just completed its overhaul and safety re-certification, made several water drops in between the Cal Fire tanker runs.

Kern County Fire Department Public Information Officer Sean Collins said firefighter held the fire to five acres and that no structures were lost and no injuries were reported.

A small number of firefighters remained through the night.

Early Thursday morning a fresh crew was scheduled to continue mop-up operations. 

The cause of the fire is unknown and under investigation.
 

Posted July 2, 2009; print edition Vol. 110, No. 13, July 8, 2009