Brushfire on Highway 98 caused power outages to over 300 IID customers

Estimated six acres destroyed near Holtville - News 11's Vanessa Gongora reports

IMPERIAL COUNTY, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - The Imperial County Fire Department (ICFD) engaged in a second alarm fire in Holtville that cut power to more than 300 customers Monday evening.

The fire broke out on Highway 98 and Bornt Road.

There were four engines assigned to this incident.

Imperial County Fire Station 2 was sent out first, followed by Imperial County Station 1.

They then called for assistance from the El Centro and Holtville Fire Departments.

There were 11 firefighters and three chief officers on the scene.

The call came in at about 5:30 p.m. and took about two hours to contain and put out.

After the firefighters put out the fire, ICFD Chief Juan Rodelo, said the main bulk of the operation was to check out the hot spots.

When firefighters arrived on the scene, there was also a power pole caught on fire.

Rodelo is unsure if the pole caused the fire or if the brush fire caused damage to the pole first.

According to the Imperial Irrigation District (IID), over 300 customers experienced a power outage in Holtville.

Because of the fire, IID had to temporarily shut down two energy lines.

According to IID, customers were without power no more than ten minutes. Five customers remained without power Tuesday.

Due to the fire, there was a disruption in traffic flow.

Highway 98 was closed for about two hours while firefighters battled the flames.

"We wanted to create a safe area for us to work with and obviously prevent civilians from getting injured or hurt because of the problem we had with the power lines," Rodelo said.

Bureau of Land Management (BLM) took control of the incident with no active fire when firefighters left the scene at around 11:00 p.m.

The land belongs to the Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Land Management protects it.

The BLM Battalion Chief, Robert Giovannetti, called in additional resources from San Diego, San Bernardino and Morongo for assistance.

"They're going to lay down hoselays and start putting out all the hot spots and we'll probably be on scene for a few days," said Giovannetti.

BLM says it's still unknown what caused the fire but they won't leave until they know for sure that the fire won't reignite.

IID says if your power does go out, do not turn your appliances on all at once. It will help protect your equipment from circuit overloads.