With Cal Fire busy and smoke billowing, neighbors rallied to save home from flames
A group of fast-acting neighbors came to the rescue to help save a Parkfield home from a vegetation fire on Sunday.
The fire, which was reported around 1 p.m., quickly sent up a column of thick, black smoke from the rural property, but unfortunately at that time on Sunday afternoon, the closest Cal Fire team was away on another call.
Parkfield is located about 17 miles north of the Cholame “Y” in southeastern Monterey County.
Parkfield Cafe and Lodge owner Lauren Varian said she heard the flames before she actually saw the billowing smoke.
Varian lives across the street from where the incident happened, so it didn’t take her long to get to the scene. But when she arrived, she found her neighbors were already on the job.
“There were already two bulldozers and wheel tractors and just an unbelievable amount of equipment from our neighbors,” she said. “We’re really lucky that a lot of our neighbors actually contract out for Cal Fire, so they’re all really skilled at fighting fires. So they just completely knew what to do.”
The residents carved dirt containment lines with their equipment and brought hoses to douse the flames. Guests at Varian’s Parkfield Cafe and Lodge even pitched in to help evacuate nearby horses.
“It was pretty inspiring, to be honest. Just seeing everybody come from every direction with any piece of equipment they had,” she said. “If they didn’t have equipment, they came with shovels and hoses. It was pretty amazing because they could all see the smoke from pretty far away. It was a lot of pretty black smoke.”
Varian and her Parkfield neighbors worked for 30 minutes before a Cal Fire plane could arrive on scene, and according to Cal Fire San Benito-Monterey’s Facebook, the 3.9-acre blaze, named the Vineyard Fire, was eventually extinguished by about 8:30 p.m.
No one was hurt, but several outbuildings and vehicles were damaged by the flames.
“Thank you to all responding personnel for their quick and coordinated efforts to keep this fire small and protect the surrounding community,” the post said.
Varian said she thought it was the neighbors’ selfless and fast action that saved the property.
“I was telling everybody there’s never a day that I love Parkfield more than when we’re in a crisis, because the community just always comes and always does everything they can,” she said.
“We were all just pretty blown away by how much our community has each other’s backs,” she said.
