An unusual brush fire not on, but off the South Coast led to an even more unusual response.
A boater spotted a brush fire on Santa Cruz Island just after 9 Monday morning in the Scorpion Canyon area. A team of four U.S. Forest Service smoke jumpers was dispatched from Porterville to battle the lighting-caused fire.
They were dropped into the area from a fixed-wing plane at around 1 p.m., and spent the afternoon working to corral the estimated one tenth of an acre fire. Full containment is expected by Tuesday morning.