Mountain blaze could have been worse
By Jeff Kearns
A two-alarm blaze at a home on Black Road in the Santa Cruz Mountains May 19 provoked a major response from area fire crews, but the flames were under control before they could pose a serious threat to mountain areas.
The homeowner, Susan Bianchini, and a friend were home at the time. Bianchini escaped with only minor burns she sustained while trying to fight the fire with a garden hose.
Bianchini, who was treated and released at nearby Lakeside Elementary School, discovered the fire in the garage at about 11:20 a.m. when she smelled smoke and heard her smoke alarms.
Several animals, including two potbelly pigs, two goats and two rabbits died in the blaze, which consumed the garage, a Geo Tracker parked in the garage, and Bianchini's daughter's bedroom. Other animals, including two dogs, two rabbits, a pig and a goat escaped or were rescued by firefighters. Bianchini didn't know what happened to her three cats, which were in the basement of the house.
"We tried to get water on the garage, but there wasn't enough pressure," Bianchini said, fighting back tears in the teacher's lounge of the school, where she was treated.
"I opened the door and saw the fire, then I closed the door and called the fire department. I noticed it was catching the hay by the barn, but I couldn't get close because it was too hot and the windows were exploding," she said. "We had two hoses going but it was so hot that it just didn't do that much."
Photograph by George Sakkestad
April Follette comforts friend Susan Bianchini.
The first engine arrived on the scene from downtown Los Gatos 13 minutes after the 911 call, after lumbering up into the mountains loaded with 35,000 pounds of water.
A total of 11 engines from the Central Fire District were called to the scene from Los Gatos, Saratoga, Campbell and Cupertino, along with an engine and a hand crew from the California Department of Forestry fire station near Lexington Reservoir. A CDF helicopter also dropped water on the fire from above.
Central Fire District Chief Frank Arnerich said that the first fire crews found a propane tank next to the house fully engulfed in flames, but that the tank fire was under control before it could explode. If the tank had exploded, or if the fire had broken out later in the summer, the house fire could have quickly turned into a much bigger blaze.
"It was burning pretty well before we were on the scene," he said. "The garage and about a quarter of the house were fully engulfed."
In addition to the water carried in the engines, crews also had to pull water from a pool and a water tank on the property, as well as other nearby water tanks and wells.
Arnerich said the cause of the fire wasn't immediately known.
With narrow, winding Black Road clogged with emergency vehicles, the California Highway Patrol closed the road between Lakeside Elementary School and Summit Road for about two hours.
Bianchini, an accountant and financial planner, lives in the home with her 12-year-old daughter, Caroline, and a renter who lives in a cottage on the property. She said she had just spent the last year remodeling the inside of the house.
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Los Gatos, California Since 1881
