Crews from East Contra Costa Fire Protection District and CALFIRE responded to a fire at the Byron Airport today which shut down the airport for an hour and a half.
The fire was reported at 1:01 pm which occurred during weed abatement. The fire burned roughly 26-acres and required 4-ECCFPD engines along with 2-CALFIRE engines to work the blaze. No one was injured and no structures were threatened, but it did tie up resources for roughly 45-minutes which meant during the incident, just 1-engine was available to cover the District.
According to Chief Hugh Henderson, they did have an air tanker ready to drop water, but they ended up not using it as they had a couple of factors working in their favor.
“They were mowing the field so it was mowed grass and runways on two-of-four sides so the runways held the fire within which allowed us to flank the other sides with the engines,” said Henderson. “It was also unique that it wasn’t windy out in Byron which its usually pretty windy so that helped control the fire.”
Chief Henderson also shared that because this was near an airport, safety was a huge concern in ensuring aircraft’s were not in the area as crews worked from the sky and the ground to keep the fire in check.
This is now the second fire in as many weeks caused by weed abatement which is because it dried out earlier this year not giving crews a chance to cut down on weeds.
Chief Henderson suggests in the future, be sure to perform abatement’s before the grass turns brown and timing is everything. Ideally, do abatement’s early in the morning and on days with more humidity in the air.
