Quick action by a neighbor who lives next door to the Durham Ferry campus site of the San Joaquin County Office of Education averted a major grass fire developing Tuesday night.

When the fire erupted and quickly spread along the fence on the south side of the entrance to the 290-acre campus, the neighbor just happened to be operating a sprinkler truck to control the dust at what appeared to be a property used for motocross activities. He immediately responded to the fire emergency and got there to do initial preventative measure before fire personnel from Lathrop and Tracy arrived at the scene, explained Battalion Chief Craig Jones of the Lathrop-Manteca Fire District Union Road Station.

Responding to the grass fire along with LMFD’s Engine 32 was the City of Tracy’s Engine 93 from the fire station just off South Airport Way. Lathrop-Manteca Fire District and the city of Tracy have an automatic mutual aid agreement, Jones said.

The combined force plus the quick action of the neighbor with the water tender limited the grass to just about 500 feet from the Durham Ferry entrance at South Airport Way into the school facility. Dried grass on both sides of the fence was charred. Like many parts of California, the deepening drought is turning areas such as the former state park into easy kindling as weeds and grass become dry and brown that could very easily catch fire.

It took the combined Tracy and Lathrop-Manteca fire personnel, who received the call around 7:50 p.m., less than an hour to fully control the grass fire.

Before the County Office of Education took over the educational facility, it was known as the Durham Ferry Park located along the San Joaquin River across from Division Road on South Airport Way. About 20 years ago, California handed over the property to the San Joaquin County Office of Education for just $1.

The sprawling former state park is now part of SJCOE’s Venture Academy Family of Schools. The campus is officially known as Historic Durham Ferry School of Agriculture and Outdoor Education where students in grades 6 to 12 learn “how to work hard, get their hands dirty” and learn about the history of this park along the river while in pursuit of their academic education.

Venture Academy is a charter school authorized by the San Joaquin County Office of Education..