Howarth Park Fire Caused By Electrical Transformer: Santa Rosa FD

SANTA ROSA, CA — A vegetation fire Wednesday night in Santa Rosa was caused by the failure of an electrical transformer, a fire official said. Firefighters from Santa Rosa, Rincon Valley and Bennett Valley were dispatched at 10:42 p.m. to the blaze on Howarth Park property along Summerfield Road, just north of Medica Road, Santa Rosa fire Battalion Chief Ken Sebastiani stated in a news release.

Sebastiani said the fire crew arrived less than five minutes later and found a power pole and a 50- by 75-foot area of cut grass and brush on fire.

"Firefighters deployed hose lines and extinguished the fire within 15 minutes," Sebastiani said.

There were no evacuations or structures threatened by the fire, the battalion chief said, but power was out to the area for approximately two hours.

PG&E Spokeswoman Deanna Contreras confirmed that at about 10:40 p.m. Wednesday a piece of PG&E equipment failed, leading to an outage for approximately 4,000 customers in Santa Rosa.

"This was in the area of Summerfield Road near Howard Park," Contreras said. "All customers were restored by midnight. The safety of our customers, crews and communities we serve is our top priority."

Sebastiani noted that the city-owned parcel had its seasonal grasses cut, "which significantly slowed the spread of the fire and allowed firefighters to quickly contain and control the fire."

The city asks that property owners do the same, Sebastiani said.

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