Firefighters Kept Busy Friday

Fire crews got a fast handle on a fire in the remote lower Dodge Ridge area of the Stanislaus National Forest Friday afternoon.

U.S. Forest Service spokesman Pat Kaunert says crews responded shortly after 1 o´clock to the blaze on Jeep road 3N20, northeast of Long Barn.

Four fire engines, one hand crew, and one water tender were fighting this fire. Two helicopters made water drops in the initial attack. Firefighters held the fire to about 1/2-acre.

Kaunert said he expected the fire will be contained by early evening.

A reported fire south of Groveland in the McDiarmid area turned out to be an out-of-hours debris burn. Two engines handled that fire.

Tuolumne County fire crews responded to an extingushed vegetation fire on the 1700 block of Woods Way off Highway 108 just after 4 p.m. Friday afternoon.

Calaveras County fire units were called to a report of a fire in a motor home in the Mokelumne Hill area on Highway 49 mid-afternoon Friday as well.