Area residents help BFPD extinguish Burney vegetation fire

BURNEY — Citizens and firefighters worked together this afternoon to quickly extinguish a vegetation fire that broke out in a field behind a Burney home. The small blaze was reported on the 37000 block of Park Ave., between Bartel St. and Long Leaf Ln.

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Burney Fire Protection District, along with several additional Intermountain area engine companies, water tenders, and other apparatus, were dispatched to the vegetation fire shortly after 1:30 p.m., after receiving reports of a fire burning in a field behind a home. 911 callers reported the fire was spreading and threatening area homes and outbuildings, as well as a recreational travel trailer. Callers also reported that citizens who spotted the fire were at the scene working to extinguish the flames.

Fire officials began arriving within three minutes of the dispatched call and found a vegetation fire burning behind a home. Several area residents were using garden hoses, shovels, and other hand tools, to slow the fire’s advance.

Officials reported the fire was covering about an eighth of an acre, immediately behind the back fence of a residence. Officials requested one additional engine company to continue and cancelled the remaining incoming apparatus.

Firefighters updated shortly before 2 p.m., they had halted the fire’s advance and that resources would remain committed at the scene of the fire for about one hour conducting overhaul operations.

Johnson Park residents and family members Robin, Amber, and Rian Montgomery, later told SCNS they were enjoying a “girl’s day out together” and were driving through town when they spotted a thick plume of smoke coming from the neighborhood where the fire broke out.

Robin, who happens to be SCNS’s photo and content editor, later explained she and her two daughters-in-law began following the smoke trail while searching the residential area for the fire and quickly located the source of the smoke in a field behind a Park Ave. residence.

As they pulled up the three women saw several men were already trying to extinguish the four-foot flames using small garden hoses, while a woman with a phone stood nearby reporting the fire to emergency dispatchers.

The trio ran to a nearby home’s back yard to search for more hoses and another water source but found several shovels and hand tools, which they then ran back to the fire with. Despite the choking smoke, the three women joined other area residents who had already been working to slow the fire’s advance.

“As we would get ahead of one side of the fire, the flames would break out and head the opposite direction,” explained Robin. “We were still trying to slow the fire’s advance when firefighters arrived and took over.”

“They did a fantastic job,” Robin later said of BFPD firefighters. “They were on scene within minutes and quickly had the flames knocked down and under control.”

“They’re true heroes, our firefighters,” Robin later explained, “Every last one of them.”

See related: Women run to aid CHP after short Burney motorcycle pursuit

At around 2:30 p.m., a firefighter at the scene updated that the fire was fully contained and no longer a threat. The official reported the small blaze was possibly started by fireplace coals discarded too close to dry leaves and brush.

No civilian or firefighter injuries related to the fire were reported and according to a firefighter at the scene, the fire did not cause any property damage.

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Amber Montgomery/SCNS photo

Amber Montgomery video

 

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Trevor Montgomery, 47, moved last year to the Intermountain area of Shasta County from Riverside County and runs Riverside County News Source and Shasta County News Source. Additionally, he writes for several other news organizations; including Riverside County based newspapers, Valley News, The Valley Chronicle, and Anza Valley Outlook; as well as Bonsall/Fallbrook Village News in San Diego County and Mountain Echo in Shasta County.

Trevor spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg, breaking his back, and suffering both spinal cord and brain injuries in an off-duty accident. (Click here to see segment of Discovery Channel documentary of Trevor’s accident.)

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations; including Robert Presley Detention Center, Southwest Station in Temecula, Hemet/Valle Vista Station, Ben Clark Public Safety Training Center, and Lake Elsinore Station; along with other locations.

Trevor’s assignments included Corrections, Patrol, DUI Enforcement, Boat and Personal Water-Craft based Lake Patrol, Off-Road Vehicle Enforcement, Problem Oriented Policing Team, and Personnel/Background Investigations. He finished his career while working as a Sex Crimes and Child Abuse Investigator and was a court-designated expert in child abuse and child sex-related crimes.

Trevor has been married for more than 28 years and was a foster parent to more than 60 children over 13 years. He is now an adoptive parent and his “fluid family” includes 13 children and 15 – but soon to be 16 – grandchildren.