On Thursday, the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District responded to a vegetation fire between Antioch and Pittsburg.
The incident began at 5:25 pm and upon arrival the fire was first estimated to be approximently 5-acres in size, but quickly grew to 20 acres by 5:45 pm. The fire was located between Somersville Road and Kirker Pass.
According to CALFIRE, they called it the Norton Fire located at Nortonville Rd X Black Diamond Wy, Clayton (Contra Costa County) is now 20 acres. Firefighters are working diligently to contain the fire currently burning in the grass. Significant air and ground resources are at scene and enroute.
As of 6:54 pm, the fire was determined to be 40 acres and contained while CALFIRE added while steep terrain and weather conditions have made containment difficult, firefighters are making good progress.
Fire crews were expected to remain on scene for some time.
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According to data, CONFIRE has responded to the following vegetation fires:
Chuck Stark, Deputy Fire Chief of Operations, shared they have 41 fire companies staffed daily – including 4-wheel vehicles and other apparatus available, they also have two hand crews (20 workers) based out of Byron and Martinez. They have a Type II bulldozer which maintain fire trails and provides fuel breaks—staffed full time starting in June (24-hrs per day).
“The biggest addition has been the Type II helicopter,” said Stark noting they are in partnership with PG&E who pay some of the freight on having it available. “The helicopter will be available May 1 through end of October if not longer. “They have a capacity of 375 gallons of water and able to dispatch to the fire, get their, give us intelligence from the air and stop dropping water and stop forward progress while protecting structures… the goal is to keep fires small and turn the mop up over to crews and get crews ready for the next fire.”
- 2025 – 190
- 2024 – 261
- 2023 – 211
- 2022 – 243
