Fire burns down home in mining area near Guerneville

A small home in a remote, historic mining area outside Guerneville burned to the ground Friday before firefighters could get to it.

Firefighters were called around 4:15 p.m. to investigate a report of smoke in the 18000 block of Sweetwater Springs Road.

The area is known as Mercury, the company town of the Great Eastern Quicksilver Company’s Mount Jackson Mine, north of Rio Nido, a few miles uphill from Guerneville.

The house, which abuts the mine property, was already engulfed when firefighters arrived, said Cal Fire Battalion Chief Marshall Turbeville. Its location about a quarter of a mile off the road made access to water and containing the fire a challenge, he said.

About three-quarters of an acre of vegetation also burned in the fire.

No one appears to have been home at the time, and it’s not clear if it was a full-time residence, Turbeville said. A cause has not yet been determined.

You can reach Staff Writer Kevin McCallum at 707-521-5207 or kevin.mccallum@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @srcitybeat.