GRAPEVINE, Calif. (KERO) — A pickup truck caught fire Wednesday morning near the Grapevine, sparking the Buzzard Fire, which spread to roadside grass and climbed a nearby hill. The fire prompted an evacuation warning and closure of the far right lane on Interstate 5 southbound, just past the Grapevine Road exit.
Kern County Fire Public Information Officer Jeremy Ruiz said helicopters and planes were critical to keeping the fire under control after it started.
"We had crews on scene within a matter of just a few minutes of this starting. And they started to make headway on the flanks of the fire, but as that fire ran uphill, the air resources that were coming in were extremely helpful and starting to get a containment on this fire."
As of Wednesday afternoon, the Buzzard Fire has burned approximately 500 acres, the right lane on Interstate 5 south is still closed, and an evacuation order remains in place for KRN-535.
Residents who would like to be alerted of evacuation warnings and orders in their area can set up alerts using the Genasys Protect app.
Earlier this week, Kern County Fire posted an infographic showing where some of its staff is deployed across the West Coast to assist with other large-scale fire operations. Ruiz said that despite those personnel being elsewhere, the department remains fully staffed locally heading into a late summer heatwave.
"We've published that we're going out of county and assisting with these larger fires out of state. We have fires that are burning well over a million acres. So even though our resources are out helping with incident management and suppression efforts, we are completely staffed here locally within Kern County. And so we will have no difference as far as our response to something like this, and we're gonna be able to put in that same suppression effort quickly."
Kern County Fire personnel said that while the fire started accidentally, it serves as a reminder for people to be aware of anything that could spark a fire, especially in dry areas as temperatures reach triple digits.
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