Patterson Pass Grass Fire Chars 400 Acres

Firefighters on Thursday evening contained two fires that combined to char more than 460 acres of grass at the Altamont and Patterson Pass, officials said.

At about 7:30 p.m., fire crews were dispatched to the Altamont Pass, just east of the Stonecut Overpass, for a blaze caused by a vehicle fire, Alameda County Fire Department Battalion Chief James Watkins said.

The blaze snarled the Interstate 580 commute as the California Highway Patrol temporarily closed down lanes in both directions to allow fire crews access.

In addition to Alameda County Fire, crews from the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department, Tracy Fire Department, Camp Parks and Cal Fire helped fight the fire.

Emergency crews also used a fixed-wing plane and helicopter to dump water on the blaze.

The Altamont Pass fire burned 60 acres, Watkins said.

At about 9:30 p.m., while crews were still mopping up the Altamont blaze, another grass fire was reported at Patterson Pass near the "Top of The World" landmark, Watkins said.

The fire, which charred more than 400 acres, was located near Flynn Road in an unincorporated area of Alameda County between Livermore and Tracy, officials said.

The area where the fire burned is largely open grassland, and there was no damage to structures or injuries reported, Cal Fire Battalion Chief Julie Hutchinson said.

However, strong winds kept firefighters at the scene for most of the night.

"There was a pretty good wind last night coming off the Delta that
was kind of funneling through that area, so it was primarily a wind-driven fire," Hutchinson said.

Fire crews were able to extinguish the large blaze around midnight.

The fire was 100 percent contained around 8 a.m. Friday.

The fire's cause remains under investigation.

Hutchinson said there have been several grass fires in the same area in recent weeks.

"It's an area that a lot of people travel through and there's a lot of very dry grass," she said. "We tell people, don't discard anything in
the area, don't pull over in the dry grass and just be on the lookout."

In addition to Cal Fire and the Alameda County Fire Department, other agencies that responded to the Patterson Pass blaze included Camp Parks, East Bay Regional Parks and crews from the Livermore-Pleasanton, San Ramon Valley and Tracy fire departments.

--Bay City News Service contributed to this report.