Firefighters contain 6-alarm wildfire in Pacifica

Firefighters battle a 6-alarm brush fire that began on Fassler Avenue and spread to Rockaway Beach Avenue, Monday, Jan. 26, 2015, in Pacifica, Calif. Firefighters battle a 6-alarm brush fire that began on Fassler Avenue and spread to Rockaway Beach Avenue, Monday, Jan. 26, 2015, in Pacifica, Calif. Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Photo: Santiago Mejia, The Chronicle Image 1 of / 18 Caption Close Firefighters contain 6-alarm wildfire in Pacifica 1 / 18 Back to Gallery

An unusual midwinter wildfire chased dozens of Pacifica residents from their homes early Monday before firefighters were able to control the six-alarm blaze.

The fire was reported at 3:35 a.m. in brush and vegetation in steep terrain on the 1100 block of Fassler Avenue near Highway 1. The fire was controlled about 8:15 a.m., and residents were allowed back to their homes.

Eighty to 90 homes in the Rockaway Beach area had been evacuated, said Clyde Preston of the North County Fire Authority. He said firefighters would remain on the scene throughout the day to watch for hotspots.

“Tinder-dry conditions” at the end of a rainless January contributed to the spread of the blaze, Preston said. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

Gina and Kevin Cox got up Monday morning, smelled smoke and quickly left their townhome on Fassler when the evacuation order was issued.

“We had to make a decision what to grab,” Gina Cox said. They fled with Missy, their three-legged toy fox terrier, five days worth of clothes, their tax information and scrapbooks.

“It’s like your stomach is cringing and you’re going, 'Is this really happening?’” she said.

She and her husband knew the drill. They have a cabin in the El Dorado County town of Pollock Pines, and had to evacuate in September when the King Fire burned 97,000 acres in the Sierra.

Still, it’s hard to get used to. “We’re more ready for a tsunami than we are for a wildfire,” Gina Cox said.

Kyle Collinsworth, 43, said he woke up at 3:45 a.m. when he heard “cars honking like crazy” and a neighbor called him, asking if he was OK.

“I looked outside and saw 40-foot flames coming down the hill,” he said. “I grabbed my girlfriend, stepdaughter, three dogs and four cats.

“I know the winds are coming from the east,” Collinsworth said. “The fire was coming right for us.”

He added, “I got everything just in case. It’s California. We’re in this crazy drought, and there’s no telling what could happen.”

Early-season rains came to an abrupt halt last month, and the landscape has dried out. San Francisco is on the verge of going an entire January with no measurable rain, something that has never happened 166 years of record-keeping.

“It’s usually a pretty wet month,” said Gloria Stofan, whose husband is retired Pacifica Fire Chief Gary Stofan. “It’s strange. It just feels eerie to have something like this in January.”

Evan Sernoffsky and Henry K. Lee are San Francisco Chronicle staff writers. E-mail: esernoffsky@sfchronicle.com and hlee@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @EvanSernoffsky, @henryklee