Golfers spot brush fire on a Mission Valley course

Golfers at the Riverwalk Golf Club in Mission Valley got a little bit more than golf Sunday morning when a fire broke out on the banks of the San Diego River alongside a hole on the back nine.

It was a golfer who spotted the smoke and called it in to the San Diego Fire Rescue Department. Two fire engines, a brush rig and a battalion chief had to access the small fire in a hard-to-reach location by driving down cart paths and crossing fairways.

The golfers didn’t seem to mind when they had to let firefighters play through, according to Jake Crawford, who works at the pro shop. And the firefighters were never in danger of getting hit by a golf ball.

“Players were told to skip the 13th hole and score an automatic par,” Crawford told City News Service. “All of the other holes are fine.”

It took firefighters less an hour to get the 20-by-20-foot fire under control. It broke out just before 11 a.m. in heavy fuel and grew at a slow rate of speed, according to firefighters. Play resumed as normal shortly after noon.