Firefighters were able to combat a wildfire in Northern California this past weekend, despite interference from a civilian drone.
Lynne Tolmachoff, spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, said authorities spotted the unmanned aircraft on Sunday as it was being used to get video of the fire, according to the San Jose Mercury News. The machine was sighted capturing footage near vineyards in the Sierra Nevada foothills east of Sacramento.
The man controlling the drone was told by authorities to stop flying it due to dangers it could cause to planes being used to put out the blaze. The man was not identified or cited.
"This is the first one that I'm aware of," Tolmachoff said. "These unmanned aircraft are becoming very popular with people, and there's a possibility we will see more of them."
She added that the machines could pose a serious problem for firefighters and in other situations in the future, The Los Angeles Times reported.
The fire was originally started on Friday at around 4:34 p.m. by a car driving in dry bush, and has since destroyed 13 homes and threatened 515 structures.
Despite the destruction, fire Battalion Chief Scott McLean said the crews kept the fire within 6 square miles and managed to increase containment by 75 percent by Monday evening. Most of the 1,200 people who were ordered to evacuate their houses were allowed to return home on Monday. The only people who weren't allowed to return home were those who lived in a square mile patch of land.
One of the people given the OK to return home was Amy Russell, 35, who remained hopeful that her house was still standing due to its location, which is on the outskirts of the fire.
"It'd be very hard to lose everything," Russell said. "It's a fixer-upper house, so we could rebuild it if it burned down, but it would be a real emotional loss."
Since starting Friday, the Sierra foothills fire has destroyed structures near regions where people grow wine in Amador and El Dorado counties. Tolmachoff said that while the fire burnt grapevines, along with grassland and timber, the crews managed to prevent it from spreading to the main grape-growing area. It is also not the only recent fire to in California to force people from their homes, the other starting on Monday morning in and Yosemite Park, burning around 4 square miles of brush and trees, San Jose Mercury News reported.
Fred Shults, 65, and his wife, Carolyn, 58, left their home, located in the blaze's path, on Friday.
"Wildfires are so uncontrollable, and people can start them so easily without knowing what they're doing," Fred said.
The couple found out on Monday that their home survived the fire and celebrated with hugs from neighbors and friends.
