3 Birds Cause 3 Separate Fires Within 24 Hours

New Melones Resevoir, CA -- The first large fire of the season was the result of what CDF´s Richard Imlach calls a strange sequence of events involving birds, and power poles.

Within a 24-hour period there were 3 similar fires started by birds being electrocuted.

12 acres of wild land burned Monday afternoon when a Red Tailed Hawk cross phased, which Imlach described as the birds wings crossing over between two conductors and half of it´s flaming wing fell to the ground and ignited the grass and pole.

The fire began near New Melones Reservoir on the Calaveras County side close to Glory Hole Marina.