Grassfire comes close to Roseville Apartments

On Wednesday afternoon, a grassfire broke out in an empty parcel between Fiddyment Road and Oak Meadows Drive in west Roseville that threatened the Harvest at Fiddyment Ranch Luxury Apartments. According to Roseville Fire Captain Russell McGrew, a city of Roseville employee reported the fire while driving past the area at 1:49 p.m. Wednesday along Fiddyment Road. As of Wednesday, McGrew said it was unknown how the fire started. A crew from Fire Station Nine was on scene at 1:53 p.m. and began containment work on the fire as the strong afternoon winds pushed the fire in a northeast direction toward the apartments. The fire was contained just after 2 p.m. and crews stayed on sight until 4:30 p.m. cleaning up the area and extinguishing any remaining flames, according to McGrew. "The fire was moving at a moderate rate," McGrew said. "The road held it from jumping (to the other field) and fortunately the property has roadway on all four sides." The estimated burn area was about four acres, according to McGrew. Harvest at Fiddyment Ranch resident Dirk Adams lives on the lower floor directly across the street from the field and could see the fire from his window. "My neighbor told me there was a fire so I moved my car that was on the street right when he told me," Adams said. "I only moved in here four days ago, too." Adams' neighbor, Jeff Wood, was on his way to get his mail when he saw the flames and smoke. "I saw the smoke and went over to the building and started knocking on doors and ringing doorbells to get people out of the building," Wood said. "It is a new building so there aren't many people living in it yet." Apartment maintenance worker Dylan Lloyd was doing some touchup painting to one of the rooms when he started smelling smoke and saw the flames when he walked outside the room. "I was looking at that field not 30 minutes before this," Lloyd said. "People have to be more careful and cognizant about where they let their kids play and throw their cigarettes because this type of stuff (fire) will happen." No one was reported injured from the fire and no buildings were damaged.