The Nexus

On Aug. 20, a small grass fire burned five acres of land facing Westview across Camino del Sur. The blaze, which was put out quickly with the help of a water-carrying helicopter, did not endanger any major structures as it burned through the canyon.

A resident of the Torrey Highlands neighborhood south of the fire, Jamie Shetzer said he came out of his house to find a pillar of smoke rising from the canyon.

“I walked back in the house and called 911,” he said. “They said they were already on their way.”

Shetzer then went to check on a neighbor at around 4:25 p.m. He found the fire burning very close to Torrey Glenn Road and the homes in the small cul-de-sac at the top of the hill.

Fireman Bill Modeen, the incident commander for the San Diego Fire Department during the fire, said that he was dispatched to the site at 4:16 p.m. A combination of multiple fire departments, including the Poway, Rancho Santa Fe and Miramar departments contained the fire in less than 20 minutes.

“The brush here is light fuel, so [the fires] move fast and make a lot of smoke,” Modeen said. “But it looks like the clearing of brush helped here.”

While residents like Shetzer were on the south side of the fire, the brush began burning farther east, near Calderon Road and Russet Leaf Lane.

Chris Price (11), a resident on Calderon Road, said his first knowledge of the blaze in the canyon came from his father.

“My dad came [in the house] and told me he thought there was a fire in the canyon, so I ran out there,” he said. “You could smell the smoke when you walked out of my house.” Price then proceeded to fight the fire approaching a neighbors’ home for the next 15 minutes. Farther down the canyon, he said he could hear the sounds of sirens in the Torrey Highlands neighborhood.

“You could hear the fire-truck sirens going off in the back of the canyon,” Price said. “I don’t know if someone called [911] on our side of the canyon. It seemed like the firefighters were only on one side of the canyon so we were by ourselves for a little while.”

Price said that when the fire trucks arrived to his neighborhood, most of the fire had already been put out. The smaller burn reached within three feet of his neighbor’s fence, but no damage was done to the home. Later the same day, fire investigators went to the scene to determine the possible causes of the fire. SDFD spokesperson Maurice Luque said that the investigation yielded no concrete evidence.

While the department has yet to discover what started the small fire, Shetzer said that high-school students walking through the canyon to reach the homes on the top of the hill has been a problem recently.

“Pardee Homes is planning to develop homes in the space [where the fire burned] within the next few years,” he said. “They sent flyers out in the neighborhood, telling students to use the footpath that’s already set up. I think they want [the students] to stay out of the construction zone.”

On the day of the fire, Price said that a nearby neighbor mentioned he had seen a teenager walk into the canyon, do something in the grass and run back out.

“[The rumor] was already going around before the fire trucks came,” Price said. “[A bystander] saw it happen and he stayed there and realized there was a fire going on.”

Luque said the department also heard the same rumor.

“We have a suspicion it may have been started by a student who was seen running back toward the school,” he said. However, Luque said that no one has been apprehended relating to the fire, and that the cause of the burn is still under investigation.