The fire this time

The 275-acre fire that threatened expensive homes along the Skyway Tuesday and closed the road for several hours not only was dangerous, it also came scarily early in the fire season, said Janet Upton, CalFire spokeswoman.

Contacted by phone Wednesday morning at the fire scene, after she’d spent the night there, Upton said she was “fried” and ready to go home but first wanted to warn people that it’s unusually dry this year and the fire danger is high.

It’s so dry that CalFire is now telling foothills residents to create defensible clearings around their houses only in the early hours of the morning. The risk of a spark setting off a blaze is too great later in the day.

The “Honey Fire,” as it was called, was expected to be mopped up by Wednesday night.