Los Gatos Residents Hail Firefighters
LOS GATOS, Calif. — Mark Petrick stopped to rest as he lugged groceries up the steep hill to his mother’s house, barred from driving by firefighters making sure that a blaze that destroyed three homes wouldn’t reignite.
But Petrick didn’t mind the hike. He and other residents of this picturesque town were just thankful Friday that the wind-fanned blaze wasn’t worse.
“She was very, very lucky,” Petrick said of his mother, one of more than 500 people evacuated after the fire started Thursday. “The fire came right up to the edge of the house.”
The blaze, firefighters believe, was started by arcing power lines near California 17 about 50 miles south of San Francisco. Winds drove it away from Los Gatos’ downtown but toward homes on wooded slopes.
Only about 15 acres burned. Petrick and other Los Gatos residents praised firefighters for being prepared, responding quickly and calling for outside help. The firefighters credited luck and lessons from other fires.
“We got a lot of people out there immediately and got ahead of the fire as much as we could. . . . And we planned for the next day,” Santa Clara County Assistant Fire Chief Benjamin Lopes III said.
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