Most of the fire occurred here. Photo Courtesy of Joe Adam GallegosBy Roger Lanse

As kites were flying at the Bataan Memorial Park on Monday afternoon, Mar. 30, 2020, black smoke billowed into the afternoon sky from the one-quarter acre Timberwood Fire at the site of Gila Woodnet about 150 yards northeast of the Santa Clara armory.

According to Joe Adam Gallegos, Santa Clara Volunteer Fire Department Chief, they were paged out at 2:09 p.m. and responded within five minutes. The fire was in grass, stacked and banded rough-sawn lumber on a loading dock, and logs waiting to be sawn on a conveyor belt, Gallegos said. He didn’t think the site had been in operation for several years.

According to Gallegos, a subcontractor was using a welding torch to burn holes in some scrap metal to mark where they should be cut, when sparks from the torch set grass on fire which then was spread by the wind to the piled lumber. Gallegos said while the torch operator could have been cited, Gallegos elected to “chew him out pretty good,” instead.

Agencies which assisted the SCVFD were the Whiskey Creek, Fort Bayard, and Bayard volunteer fire departments, and the U.S. Forest Service who were in the area, Gallegos said, and came to see if help was needed. Santa Rita VFD was placed on standby. In all, four brush trucks, two fire trucks (Class A), one water tender, one backhoe, and 21 personnel combatted the blaze. The backhoe came from the Village of Santa Clara and was used to turn over the burning lumber so it didn’t sit and smolder all night, Gallegos stated. Firefighters left the scene at 4:38 p.m.

 “The wind was definitely a concern,” Gallegos told the Beat. “I just thank God the fire didn’t endanger the Terrazzas Funeral Chapel or jump the highway into Santa Clara.”