Columns of black-and-gray smoke belched from a fire along the east side of the Sacramento River below Hemsted Road in Redding Wednesday night.
Photo by Bethany Chamberlain
Cullen Kreider, battalion chief for the Redding Fire Department, said the fire was relatively small, about 1/8 of an acre, fueled mainly by brush and trash. He said the fire was called in about 8:35 p.m.
“We think it was probably a transient camp,” he said. “We’ve pretty much put it out.”
Kreider said fire crews used an access road to reach the fire below the Cornerstone Community Bank parking lots, a brushy area that consists mainly of weeds, scrub oak and poison oak. A few firefighters scaled down the steep hillside by hanging onto fire hoses. An acrid, chemical smell hung in the air.
The blaze, located north of Cornerstone Community Bank on East Cypress Avenue and south of View 202 Restaurant & Lounge on Hemsted Road, drew onlookers who watched from the bank and restaurant parking lots before Redding Police had restricted access to traffic and pedestrians.
On the other side of the river, onlookers gathered on sidewalks and in parking lots along Park Marina Drive to watch the fire.
Back at the bank parking lot on Hemsted Road, a 13-year-old boy said he, his father and younger brother raced to the fire after spotting the smoke as they traveled on Highway 44. He said they arrived on the scene before the fire crews and police.
The father said there was talk among some other people who were there shortly after the fire started who said they’d heard a loud “boom”, followed by seeing a man flee the area on bicycle.
By 9 p.m. the fire was mostly extinguished, and crews were mopping up the area.
Meanwhile, on Parkview Avenue, on the other side of the Cypress Street Bridge in Freebridge Park, Redding Police Department officers had responded to a call about a woman found lying face down on a picnic table.
Passerby Anthony James of Redding said he saw the woman and thought she was dead. James said he then flagged down some drivers who called 911.
As James told the story of finding the woman, a Redding Police Department officer told James that the woman was alive, just drunk and passed out.
“That’s pretty common around here,” he said.
The woman was loaded into an ambulance that pulled away slowly from the curb. No flashing lights.
Just another Wednesday night in Redding.
Photos by Bethany Chamberlain.
Independent online journalist Doni Chamberlain founded what’s now known as anewscafe.com in 2007 with her son, Joe Domke of the Czech Republic. Prior to 2007 Chamberlain was an award-winning newspaper opinion columnist, feature and food writer recognized by the Associated Press, the California Newspaper Publishers Association and E.W. Scripps. She lives in Redding, CA.
