Lightning may have caused fire outside Santa Rosa

A fire burned three acres above Los Alamos Road east of Santa Rosa early Sunday, drawing a fast response from Cal Fire crews wary of a parched landscape.

The 12:47 a.m. fire - cupped by a stand of trees on a steep, dry hillside - may have been caused by a lightning strike, though that was unconfirmed, said dispatchers with Redcom, the county’s fire dispatch system.

Ten engines and a bulldozer responded to the blaze, which, on a night of extremely high winds, progressed into the roots of surrounding trees, stumps and shrubs.

“It was what we call an augmented response,” said Cal Fire Capt. Joe Fletcher. “We’re being very conservative after four years of drought.”

There were no injures and no structures were threatened, he said.

Engines stayed on the scene working the remnants of the fire until mid-afternoon Sunday.