Fire Blazes Highway Side Near Larkin Valley

Fire crews are battling a wildland blaze that sparked east of Highway 1 near Larkin Valley on Saturday afternoon.

The fire was reported around 1:35 p.m. just south of Freedom Boulevard. A squadron of fire fighters were attacking the flames from the ground and air, according to CalFire Capt. Loree Borelli.

No evacuations have been announced and no roads closed, though Highway 1 northbound was shutdown briefly while a CalFire helicopter dropped off a firefighting crew from the Alma station, Borelli said.

At least six fire trucks, a bulldozer and a hand crew, as well as the helicopter, two air tankers and a spotter plane responded to fight the fire.

The cause of the fire was not immediately known.

At 2:15 p.m., the fire had blazed over the hill away from Highway 1, while bystanders that had been diverted onto Bonita Drive off of the highway stood along the road taking photos.

The area where the fire is burning is just a few miles north from the site of the Trabing Fire, a devastating blaze that scorched more than 600 acres and destroyed dozens of homes in 2008. That fire was traced back to tiny, hot projectiles emitted from a vehicle tailpipe, according to CalFire investigators.