VIDEO: When an SUV caught fire on the shoulder of Highway 17 in the Santa Cruz Mountains Saturday, the red flag “warning” changed to “red alert” as the fire quickly ignited the surrounding hillside.
“We hit it from all directions in order to get through traffic and get to it as quickly as possible,” said Louisa Rapport of Santa Clara County Fire. Crews came from Santa Clara County, Santa Cruz County and Cal Fire. It’s called high dispatch and it’s triggered by the high fire danger weather and fuel conditions.
“We are sending the most number of resources to any vegetation fire that’s reported.”
But the oversized response is only part of why this fire did not end in a disaster. Two years ago, Santa Clara County began trimming most of the vegetation back from the Highway 17 roadway to slow if not stop a fire in its tracks.