A brush fire started on a property off Mill Road in Carlsborg on Friday afternoon, July 26, rapidly burning before firefighters arrived on scene and started containing the blaze.

No injuries were reported.

Firefighters battled the fire from multiple directions in a field just a few hundred yards east from the maintenance facility on Carlsborg Road used by Clallam County Fire District 3. Responders worked both from an access to the property from Mill Road, and ran hoses over a fence from the end of a private road just north of Jennifer Court to work the fire from the other side.

According to Assistant Chief Eric Quitslund, between 1.5 and 2 acres of grass and brush burned, with no persons harmed and minimal damage to buildings on the property. Only one structure, a small wood shed with plastic siding, was damaged in the fire. Another small shed was slightly burned, but suffered no major damage. Several other structures, including other sheds, multiple trailers and a barn, were close to the edges of the fire but avoided harm.

Several vehicles on the property appeared to avoid being burned as well, although a lawnmower was somewhat damaged by the flames. The cap of an irrigation pipe on the property was also broken and gushed water for some time before being shut off.

“This could have gone a lot worse,” said one firefighter on the scene of the lack of structural damage. Quitslund agreed.

According to Quitslund, the fire started when a neighbor was cleaning out ashes from a burn pit, and still-hot embers set the grass on fire. Strong winds quickly spread the flames thanks to how dry the area was.

Several area residents came quickly to help fight the fire before responders arrived, including multiple former volunteer firefighters from Clallam County and elsewhere.

“Everyone on the scene were very helpful,” Quitslund said.

Quitslund said that the fire was contained in a little under 40 minutes, with a couple of hours of work on hotspots and preventative work afterwards. Crews were cautious about potential flare-ups after they left, so neighbors were asked to keep an eye on the field. One small area did flare up again later in the afternoon, but crews were quickly back on the scene and extinguished it.

A tongue of flame rises over blackberry bushes at a brush fire in Carlsborg on July 26. Sequim Gazette photo by Conor Dowley.

Fire District 3 personnel working on “hot spots” at a brush fire that burned almost two acres in Carlsborg on July 26. Sequim Gazette photo by Conor Dowley.

Fire District 3 personnel work on putting out flames that are melting the plastic siding from a shed in a brush fire in Carlsborg on July 26. Sequim Gazette photo by Conor Dowley.