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El Dorado Hills Neighbors Stood Watch Over Homes As Flames Inched Closer

EL DORADO HILLS (CBS13) - A fire came too close for comfort in El Dorado Hills early Sunday. Cindy Soderman stood outside with her neighbors at 1 o'clock in the morning shooting cell phone video and snapping pictures to show just how close the flames came to their neighborhood.

"It was scary, definitely scary, and a lot of smoke," Soderman said.

Rick Cote said it's the closest he's ever seen flames come to his home. He watched the flames roar less than a hundred feet away from where there is now scorched land. The only comfort was seeing and hearing all the crews go to work to knock it down.

"Lights were running up and down the hill. You could hear lots of yelling," Cote said. "You could hear bulldozers that came in at one point, so they were pretty much on top of it."

Neighbors said they aren't sure what started the fire, but they did get alerts about fireworks in the area not long before they saw the flames.

"Fire season concerns me, in general, all the time and when you hear about careless starts of fire it frustrates the heck out of us," Cote said.

"If it is fireworks, I just wish people wouldn't do that. It's after 4th of July and this is what can happen," Soderman said.

In all, 35.5 acres burned but no homes were damaged.

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