An ordinary summer afternoon turned into a stark reminder of the growing wildfire threat for the Pleasanton community. A vegetation fire broke out around 3:00 pm on Tuesday, July 21. The fire spread quickly across dry vegetation, alarming residents in nearby neighborhoods.
“I noticed the fire around 4, I had received a phone call from a friend about it before that. I started to monitor the Ruby Hill WhatsApp group and started preparing to evacuate. I didn’t think our home was actually at risk, I just focused on packing our important documents and valuables, and whatever we needed for an overnight stay,” said Ruby Hills resident Neha Rao.
The fire sparked around Little Valley Road and Vallecitos Road, which is southeast of the Callippe Preserve Golf Course. Officially named the “Little Fire,” it grew to 75 acres about an hour after igniting.
Coordinating the Emergency Response
“For me as Mayor, after watching the Southern California fires, lack of updates and misinformation really impacted that community, and where people could go to safety. As a result, seeing our response appear, we did a very good job of having consistent information reported out relatively regularly really helped our community know where to go for safe refuge,” said Pleasanton Mayor Jack Balch…