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By Kathleen Coates | The Press Democrat (Santa Rosa)
With the help of a neighbor with an old fire truck, a man who accidentally started a fire was able to save several sheep, goats, chickens and geese from burning before fire agencies arrived to put out the blaze west of Petaluma on Saturday.
Rancho Adobe Fire Protection District Battalion Chief Herb Wandel said “a gentleman with good intentions but bad timing” was using mowing equipment to cut down 8-foot-tall thistle plants during a time of hot weather and low humidity.
“It looks like he might have hit a dirt clod or a rock and started a fire. Once he realized he had started a fire behind him, they called 911,” Wandel said.
Some of the animals were in a pen and others were in a field, “pinned to the corners” of the fence, he said.
“It was a pretty substantial fire and entailed a lot of overhaul, digging up hot spots and using extra water to get it down to bare dirt,” Wandel said.
The call went out at 1:21 p.m. The fire ended up burning 3 1/2 acres in the 2000 block of Skillman Lane near Thompson Lane. Although houses and barns on nearby properties were threatened for a short time, the fire was extinguished quickly after five fire agencies responded, Wandel said. Only a small barn, a tractor and a horse trailer were damaged, he said.
The National Weather Service has rated fire danger in Sonoma County as extreme and fire agencies have “upstaffed” for the long Labor Day weekend, Wandel said.
“Because we had all the units available, we were able to get there quickly. Several stations responded,” he said.
Rancho Adobe was the lead agency, and units arrived to help from the Petaluma Fire Department, Cal Fire, the Coast Guard Training Center and the North Bay Fire Department, Wandel said.
Fire crews were set to return Saturday night, as well as Sunday morning, to make sure no fires kicked up.
You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5209.
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Originally published at Ap Mcclatchy