Wildfire burning on Kingsbury Grade

A wildfire about halfway up Kingsbury Grade was quickly contained Wednesday afternoon.

The fire was reported about 1:29 p.m. Forward progress was halted by air and ground units battling the blaze about 3:45 p.m.

Kingsbury Grade was reopened shortly after 6 p.m. when hand crews got a hose line around a 1.5-acre fire, a fire official said.

East Fork Fire Marshal Steve Eisele said two full hand crews have surrounded the fire.

He said the fire was about a half-mile from a home on the Grade burning in brush and some scattered timber.

“We were very fortunate that we had very little winds,” he said. “The humidity was quite low for that area. We were also fortunate that we had available resources between local and federal governments.”

Those resources included two helicopters, including a Skycrane, a single-engine air tanker and a heavy air tankers.

He said the fire is on the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit of the U.S. Forest Service.

The cause is under investigation, Eisele said. There were several reports of lightning strikes in the area during a thunderstorm on Monday. The fire is also located near a power pole that could also have ignited the blaze.