A lightning strike sparks a brush fire, threatening at least one home. The blaze started late Friday afternoon in the Pauma Valley, off of Rincon Ranch Road. It had some folks ready to evacuate.
The Rincon Forest Fire Station sits just a couple a miles from where the one-acre blaze started. A fast response from locals and the fire crew thwarted any chance of this lightning strike turning into a possibly devastating wildfire.
Joyce and Craig Childs witnessed the lightning strike from their front porch. Joyce Childs said, "It sounded like a big crack."
The Childs described a sight they'd rather forget.
Childs said, "We saw some of the flames coming over the mountain. That's when I went back in the house and started collecting some things."
Joyce's husband called 911 and within minutes a whole army of firefighters came out to knock the brush fire down as soon as it became trouble. Two airtankers and helicopters rushed to the scene.
CALFIRE Fire Captain Rick Johnson was one of the first on scene. He said, "We are very fortunate the Santa Anas are not going on right now, and that the red flag was canceled."
Capt. Rick Johnson is greatful this didn't happen a day earlier.
He said, "We could have had a substantial more of a growth of a fire with the east winds because it would've been funneled to the other structures."
The blaze did threaten one house, but quick work from firefighters stopped the fire in its tracks.
Capt. Johnson said, "We are fortunate that the fire did bump the top of the ridge, and we had a nursery right here and it ran out of fuel."
