Brush fire awakens San Anselmo residents

Residents awoke to a brush fire at the top of Faude Park early yesterday morning.

"Someone was up early on a Sunday – thank God – and called it in," said Barbara Almquist, who lives right at the corner of Elkhorn and Alice where the firefighters have to enter the open space.

"I was asleep. My house could have burned," said Almquist. She awoke at 8 a.m., made a cup of tea, and came out to see the firefighters and fire trucks lined up outside her house. Eighteen firefighters helped control the fire, including some from Marin County and Ross.

The small brush fire was reported at 6:35 a.m. by a resident on Santa Cruz Avenue, who spotted the fire higher up on the hill, and contained a little after 7 a.m. But firefighters stayed at Faude Park (and outside Almquist's house) until 5 p.m. to make sure that no cinders reignited.

"When they left, I ran out and said thank you and hugged them," said Almquist.

The 13.5-acre Faude Park is an open space with a brush and overgrowth. The town of San Anselmo, which owns the park, used to do more fire management work on the property. One year they even had a pack of goats on the hillside to eat the dried grass that poses a fire hazard. But, in recent years, money has been short and the task of brush management has fallen primarily to local residents.

"I live in constant fear of fires in the park," said Almquist, who has lived across from the open space, at it's trail entrance, for 25 years.

The Ross Valley Fire Department said they aren't sure what caused the blaze, but believe it to have been accidental.