Sargents Fire near Lake San Antonio is 50% contained at 850 acres
The Sargents Fire northeast of Lake San Antonio and east of San Ardo continued burning Sunday night into Monday morning.
Cal Fire reported Monday morning that the blaze has burned about 850 acres in the remote area near Wunpost Road and Sargeant Canyon Road, northeast of Bradley in southern Monterey County.
However, firefighters also made good progress in slowing the fire’s forward progress, bringing containment up to 50% as of Monday morning, according to Cal Fire.
The Sargents Fire started at around 3 p.m. Sunday as two separate brush fires that burned into each other. The fire quickly grew to about 60 acres by 4:20 p.m., then 250 acres by around 5:30 p.m., according to scanner traffic.
Within an hour, the Sargents Fire had burned an estimated 500 acres, according to scanner traffic. About 20 minutes later, an incident command officer over the scanner reported the fire was mapped at around 800 acres, but containment had reached about 15%.
Firefighting operations continued overnight, allowing Cal Fire resources to increase the containment and decrease the fire’s forward progress.
Firefighters were greeted with cooler temperatures and decreased wind speeds Monday morning. Wind gusts reached about 28 mph and temperatures rose to 93 degrees late Sunday afternoon, according to the National Weather Service, which may have contributed to the fire’s rapid spread late in the day.
Memorial Day will be a hot one, however, for those battling the remaining flames today. The National Weather Service predicts temperatures will reach 98 degrees in the Bradley area by late afternoon.
Although the National Weather Service is expecting winds to remain calm throughout the day, it notes that gusts could reach up to 20 mph.
This is a developing story, check back here for updates.
