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A plane dropped flame retardent on the fire, which was burning a line of phragmites reeds.
Residents and workers in the neighborhood at the dead end of Redwood Avenue gathered around to watch the smoke and, ocasionally, the flames visible through the woods.
Lois Leeds, who was told to evacuate her home at the corner of Ocean Avenue and Rosewood, said that this is the first time there had been a fire in the woods behind her home in the last 30 years.
Angel Gonzalez, who lives across the street on Rosewood, worried about the family that lived next door, between his house and the woods — a house that another neighbor, Allan Eaves, said was just built in the last two years.
“I thought this only happens in California!” Gonzalez said. “There’s a lot of brush over there. If the fire comes this way...”
Employees at the Recigno laboratory at the corner of Ocean and Redwood gathered in the parking lot and tried to track the progress of the fire.
“We smelled the smoke,” said Lauren Mulholland, “and the ashes were blowing really hard. One neighbor said it started way down here” — she pointed north, past the spot where police had blocked off traffic on Shore and New roads — “but it moved.”
“”It was just above the treeline,” Recigno employee Jan Tait said of the flames. “You could see the roar of it. If I see it again, I’m going to have to evacuate everybody. I don’t like the wind blowing this way.”
“Those flames were high,” Recigno employee Jim DeCarlo said. “Those flames were kicking, man.”
Smoke could also been seen billowing just to the south, though that blaze seemed to taper off as the fire beyond Redwood intensified.
A plane circled over several times, dumping chemicals on the fire from above, while a fire pumper truck backed up to the end of Rosewood to allow access for firefighters.
Still, flames could be seen through the trees even after the second, heavier drop from the plane.
