Firefighters To Stay Overnight After Putting Out Small Brush Fire Near Woodside
WOODSIDE (CBS SF) -- Cal Fire is conducting mop up operations near Woodside after the Huddart Fire burned one half acre near Huddart Park in San Mateo County early Sunday morning.
Firefighters will remain at the scene for at least the next 24 hours because of extremely heavy ground fuels, according to Cal Fire. One firefighter suffered a minor injury. There were no civilian injuries or damage to structures.
Huddart Park and Kings Mountain Road at Patrol Road and Skyline Boulevard will be closed all night, according to the Woodside Fire Protection District.
The fire was first reported shortly after 6 a.m., when a motorist on Interstate 280 saw the column of smoke.
"So if this went unchecked, if someone wouldn't have caught it, didn't call, the potential for a large fire really is there," said Cal Fire Captain Jordan Motta.
The flames were consuming a material known as duff, several feet deep, that had accumulated for years.
"That's all the material that falls out of redwood trees. The dead needles, the cones, the bark, and it's stacked up over the years and in a creek drainage there, and it caught fire and that's what's burning right now," said Motta.
"The next coming days in the Bay Area, we're going to see some near record temperatures coming out, especially this late in the fire season. June, July, it's kind of the beginning. August, September, October is when we see our biggest fires," said Motta.
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