Cause of Outer Highway 10 Fire Accidental, Cal Fire + Sheriff Investigate

Someone using a power saw accidentally sparked a fire Wednesday that prompted evacuations on Knoll Drive in east Redlands, scorched three to five acres, and destroyed an outbuilding and a travel trailer, fire officials and residents said.

Sheriff's Bomb-Arson and Cal Fire investigators were assigned to follow up because the fast-moving blaze started in Yucaipa's jurisdiction, Redlands Fire Battalion Chief David Graves said Wednesday afternoon.

was reported just before noon in an open area between two businesses on Outer Highway 10 in Yucaipa, and it quickly spread uphill toward several homes on Knoll Drive, Graves said.

Sharon Fletcher, 65, who lives on Knoll, said she was getting dressed when her husband smelled smoke.

"I was trying to get my clothes on and my husband was in the shower," she said. "He got his pants on, went to look, came back and said 'Sharon get those clothes on now. We're going to have to leave, soon!'"

"Somebody was cutting something down there and it sparked," Varnum Fletcher, 61, said as he looked over scorched earth behind his home on Knoll.

"I was using a water hose at the back fence and watching the flames," he said. "When it hit the trees, they just went up. Some of them are eucalyptus. The neighbors are lucky."

Sharon Fletcher, a former San Bernardino County deputy sheriff, walks with a cane because she was injured on the job struggling with a prisoner in the 1970s.

She and her husband left their home on Knoll and drove to some nearby property across Alta Vista and waited there "several hours" during the fire fight, she said.

"We went across the road and I called my church," Sharon Fletcher said. "Immanuel Baptist in Highland. I asked them for prayers, to pray for a ring of guardian angels around the house, and to protect the animals."

The Fletchers have lived on Knoll Drive more than 35 years, and they have geese, ducks, guineas, two cockatiels, one lovebird and a llama named Frisco.

"My prayers were answered. The flames didn't come up here and my neighbors came down to help us," Sharon Fletcher said. "Praise God, He helped save our house."

A total of 11 engines and 64 personnel responded from Cal Fire, the Forest Service, Loma Linda and Redlands, as well as San Bernardino County deputies and the California Highway Patrol, Graves said.

One Cal Fire helicopter crew responded to do recon, Graves said. Because the fire started in Yucaipa and burned into Redlands, a two-alarm response helped arriving crews get a handle on a situation that could have been worse, Graves said.

It was around 95 degrees with 21 percent humidity and winds under five miles per hour when fire crews gained the upper hand on the fire, Graves said.

No injuries were reported. Fire crews were released before 4:30 p.m.