A fast moving wildland fire engulfed nearly 400 acres in the heart of Amador County on the afternoon of Friday the 13th. Dubbed the Electra Fire because of its origin near Electra Road below Pine Grove, the aggressive blaze was wrought with challenges on a day already associated with bad luck. The fire’s origin beneath 65,000 volt high tension lines effectively severed power to an estimated 13,000 Amador County residents scattered upcountry. Within hours of the first reports of smoke at approximately 3pm, the blaze traveled northeast to within sight of structures on Fig Tree, Ponderosa and Canyon Roads north of Highway 26 and below Pine Grove. A voluntary evacuation was implemented and fire crews began going door to door to inform residents of the blaze. Pine Grove Elementary School was designated as a temporary evacuation center staffed with Red Cross volunteers. While word spread amongst residents living in threatened areas, a myriad of fire and emergency response crews established a staging area on the shore of Lake Tabeau.

“This is a mid slope fire,” said CalFire Spokesman Tobie Edmonds, who was on the scene. “Because of the fire’s location, we can’t effectively attack it from the top or the bottom. This is essentially an air show right now.” Among the many tools on hand, including 15 engines, 2 bulldozers, 4 water tenders, and 6 hand crews, perhaps the most effective were the 3 air tankers and a number of helicopters scooping water from nearby Lake Tabeau. “We are fortunate to have this body of water within one eighth of a mile,” said Bill Lavallie, TSPN’s contributing reporter. While fire crews surrounded the blaze upcountry, other agencies were taking action county wide. According to the under sheriff Jim Wagner with the Amador County Sheriff’s Department, officers had set up roadblocks and shut down roads in a radius around the fire. Lynn Olsen with the Office of Emergency Services was spreading news of the blaze to all media outlets with a better possibility of reporting the afternoon’s events to those without power. By 7pm Friday evening, Edmonds reported that the blaze was over 25 percent contained. Crews continued to work throughout the night, and by 11am Saturday morning the fire was 100 percent contained. PG & E restored power and fixed the downed lines by late Saturday afternoon. As of the time of this report, investigators are still working to determine the cause of the blaze.