Flames Spread Quickly On Business 80 Amid Record Heat In Sacramento

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — It was another busy day for fire crews faced with hot and dry conditions as a blaze shut down part of Business 80 shut down the freeway, causing a major backup.

A car towed by an RV on the shoulder of the highway caught on fire. The flames quickly spread igniting the grass embankment along the highway about a mile west of Exposition Boulevard.

"Because of the direction of the winds some of the tall flames coming off that vehicle fire spread over that vegetation," said Chris Harvey with the Sacramento Fire Department.

Fire crews were able to put a line around the grass fire and contain it to 20 acres.

"It's very scary with this hot weather, anything can spark a fire that can spread," said Rosalie Gallagher who lives nearby.

The Capital City Freeway shut down around 4:30 p.m. Monday-- causing a major back-up.

"Traffic was backed up for miles and miles, took me an hour and a half to get home today, normally takes me about a half-hour," said Chris Grey who was stuck in traffic.

In Orangevale, off Terramore Drive, a fire sparked in one home and jumped to another leaving 2 families displaced.

"With North winds throughout many of the last few days, with dried out vegetation, obviously temperatures, it was just an easy spread," said Sac Metro Fire Captain Chris Vestal.

Vestal says crews are up against some difficult conditions.

"A lot of hydration, altering some of the exercises and activities we do throughout the day," he said.

In Southern California, firefighters are battling a wildfire burning in the San Bernardino National Forest northeast of Big Bear Lake that has burned more than 850 acres. No homes being threatened.

While crews in Sacramento have contained the fire spread along the highway and continue to mop up and monitor hot spots-- they say we're not out of the danger zone.

"We have many days of warm weather ahead of us these fuels got really big and tall during this winter, they're starting to dry out now so we have the potential for very extreme fire behavior," said Chris Harvey.

Fire officials warn: be very careful with sparks, matches, barbecues, lawn equipment that's gasoline powered-- any little thing can cause a fire because of the weather.