75% containment, evacuations relaxed after Corral Fire burns 14,000-plus acres near Tracy

Amid strong but seasonal winds, Firefighters on Sunday gained the upper hand after a wildfire exploded to 14,000 acres Saturday, burning at least one home and shutting down two freeways, before officials relaxed mandatory evacuations in an area southwest of Tracy. In an update Monday morning, officials said the fire had scorched 14,168 acres and was 75% contained.

The Corral Fire started around 3 p.m. Saturday along Corral Hollow Road on the border of Alameda and San Joaquin counties, on land used by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory’s Site 300, a facility that once developed explosives material and other ordnance. It was not clear what started the blaze, said Cal Fire’s Santa Clara unit, which is in unified command with Alameda County Fire Department teams.

Sunday, crews worked through another day of southwesterly winds that push flames against a small residential area known as Par Country Estates along Interstate 580. The fire was burning 25 miles west of Modesto and 60 miles south of Sacramento.

“Strong winds and dry grass have made it difficult to contain,” Cal Fire SCU said in its Sunday morning update. But, by afternoon, officials had made progress on the threat to homes in the area and emergency officials had downgraded mandatory evacuations to warnings. San Joaquin County officials said those warnings would go into effect at 6 p.m.

Two firefighters from the Alameda department were being treated for minor injuries Saturday, Cal Fire said.

Roadways reopen as conditions improve

Around noon Sunday, both directions of Interstate 580 were reopened, reconnecting Interstate 5 — a major arterial between Southern California and Bay Area — with Altamont Pass. Caltrans District 10 officials said one eastbound lane would remain closed between I-205 and I-5 to buffer firefighting efforts. Highway 132 was also reopened after being shut down for about 17 hours.

Between the fire’s start and midnight, the wind-whipped blaze leaped to 10,000 acres and burned one home and several outbuildings and vehicles. The fire was able to cross the four-lane freeway on Saturday in several spots, Cal Fire perimeter maps showed. Crews responded by keeping the flames limited in an area close to the San Joaquin-Stanislaus county line. Other spot fires had nowhere to go once they reached the California Aqueduct.

Eight miles north, away from the winds and smoke that hung over the fire, an American flag wrapped around the flagpole outside Larch Clover Community Center in north Tracy.

Five volunteers sat inside the community center next to tables filled with water bottles, Blue Diamond almonds and “flaming hot” beef jerky. Despite the provisions, only four people had come in for services on Sunday as of 11:30 a.m., a volunteer said.

Approximately 25 evacuees had come in Saturday, mainly to get information, before moving on to area hotels.

In a morning update, firefighters said “weather conditions became more favorable for firefighters, allowing crews to make progress constructing and improving control lines.”

Winds were expected to remain gusty

Winds in the area were fierce overnight — but not unusual for an area that’s dotted with wind turbines just to the north. At Altamont Pass, southwest winds hovered around 40 mph with gusts to 50 mph recorded about 3 a.m. Winds at the San Joaquin-Stanislaus county line were gusting to 25 mph, according to sensor readings collected by the National Weather Service.

Idamis Shoemaker, a meteorologist at the weather service’s Sacramento office, said winds during the day were expected to remain between 20 and 30 mph but strong winds were expected to pick back up into the evening in the fire area.

Shoemaker said gusts in the general area of the fire could reach 35 mph, which is normal for this time of year as onshore breezes push over the coastal mountains and down into the Central Valley.

As aerial crews flew in at daybreak to help the more than 400 personnel on the ground fight the blaze, ranch homes along Vernalis Road, just south of Highway 132 and near the Tracy Golf and Country Club, had been spared because of defensible space around their dwellings.

One home in the area had burned overnight, along with several outbuildings and an abandoned home and barn.

The San Joaquin County Office Of Emergency Services said it would relax the mandatory evacuations for areas west of the California Aqueduct, south of Corral Hollow Creek, west to the Alameda County line and south to the Stanislaus County line, around 6 p.m., allowing residents to return.

‘We haven’t had one this close in a long time’

Christine and Jamilyn Lewis drove out to Chrisman Road’s intersection with Durham Ferry Road, where the California Highway Patrol had closed traffic to the blackened hills beyond Sunday afternoon. The mother and daughter live about 5 miles from West Corral Hollow Road, where the fire started.

Jamilyn Lewis was out with friends Saturday when she saw smoke in the air and said, “Well, that’s not good.” Meanwhile, her mother began frantically packing a few days’ worth of clothes and dog food for their 4-month-old German Shepherd puppy, Harley, in case they needed to evacuate to a Tracy Wildlife Association campground.

“My husband always has a bug-out bag, and he was all ‘I told you!’” Christine Lewis said. “We kind of threw our stuff together last night, and I was up until like 6 a.m.”

The fire reminded Lewis and her husband of living in the Bay Area during the 1991 Oakland Hills firestorm, which killed 25 people and destroyed more than 3,000 homes. She moved to Tracy months later, and hadn’t run into a similar blaze until Saturday.

“We haven’t had one this close in a long time, and we’ve been out here 28 years,” she said.

The Lewis’ home was still safe as of Sunday afternoon, but Christine spoke to a friend at about 10 p.m. Saturday whose 500-acre ranch had burned up, decimating multiple structures. After that, she and her husband began preparing to load their Harley-Davidson motorcycles into a trailer in case of evacuation. Harley, the puppy, would ride with Jamilyn in the car.

Investigation of the blaze begins

Several homes nearby remained without power after fire knocked down lines Saturday, Pacific Gas & Electric Co. said. PG&E also said firefighters had asked for some lines to be de-energized. As many as 3,800 ratepayers were in the dark Saturday night, only about 160 remained interrupted, the utility said.

An evacuation shelter remained open at the Larch Clover Community Center, 11157 W. Larch Road. County officials also hosted an animal evacuation center at the Manteca Education & Training Center, 2271 W. Louise Ave.

In addition to the 60 engines, 12 water tenders and nine hand crews fighting flames, a team of investigators was on scene near Site 300 to begin investigating what sparked the fire, Cal Fire said.

Fire officials said previous prescribed burns in the area initially helped to slow the spread but no prescribed fire plans were started or burning on Saturday, said Cheryl Hurd, a spokesperson for Alameda County Fire.