SCOTTS VALLEY >> A Monday night fire near the 2000 block of Lockhart Gulch Road near Mission Springs Conference Center was contained at 9 acres early Tuesday morning.

The blaze, with no known ties to the similarly timed Loma Fire, was reported about 9:30 p.m. Monday and under control by 5:30 a.m. Tuesday. Cal Fire continued to monitor and stamp out small fire patches into the afternoon, said Capt. Loree Borelli with Cal Fire in Felton. A second unrelated fire cropped up at about 10 a.m. Tuesday on the Ox Road trail in Henry Cowell Redwoods State Park off Highway 9, but was contained to a 30-by-30-foot patch, Borelli said.

“It started in the grass, got into eucalyptus and brush and holding at the ridgeline,” Borelli said. “There was one structure threatened, but that is no longer the case.”

Part of Lockhart Gulch Road was closed temporarily, but there were no mandatory evacuations, officials said. No firefighter or resident injuries were reported to Cal Fire or the Scotts Valley Fire District, who were first on the scene of the fire, officials said. Central Fire Protection District, Branciforte Fire Protection District and Felton Fire Protection District also were called in to assist, officials said.

“I understand that residents in the area and the Weston Road area were loading horses and some people evacuated on their own, so they were preparing to leave,” said Scotts Valley Fire District Capt. John Crivello, describing conditions in the county as like a “tinderbox.” “They were up on a ridge, so that was best-case scenario. It wasn’t burning up toward homes.”

Preliminary investigation shows the fire was accidental in nature and began on a resident’s property before spreading up a brush and timber hillside, Crivello said.

Crivello urged residents to maintain a “defensible space” cleared of brush around their homes and to clearly and visibly mark their home and driveways with their addresses.

Editor’s note: This article has been updated to correctly reflect the name of the street from where a resident evacuated their horses.