Golfer Starts Brush Fire With One Swing



What’s the worst thing you’ve done with one swing of a golf club? Maybe you’ve hit a house, a cart or even a fellow golfer, but those damages pale in comparison to what happened at a California Golf Course on Tuesday.

A man took a mighty swipe at his ball at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club, nicked an embedded rock resulting in a spark that ignited a brush fire, which would eventually burn 20 acres in about an hour and a half. NBC4 Los Angeles had the details


A fire that burned more than 20 acres near an Orange County golf course was started by sparks from a golfer’s club striking a rock, and it’s not the first time a rough lie turned into a fire hazard.

Investigators confirmed the cause of the fire after speaking with witnesses who were at Arroyo Trabuco Golf Club Tuesday afternoon in Mission Viejo.

“The golfer had hit the ball into the rough,” Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Larry Kurtz told the Orange County Register. “As he was trying to get it out he accidentally hit a rock and it started a fire.” The golfer tried to put out the fire, but flames spread quickly in dry brush. The fire threatened nearby homes, but no structures were damaged and no injuries were reported.

The LA CBS affiliate reported that 140 firefighters and three firefighting helicopters were needed to contain the blaze. No people or structures were damaged in the fire.

[NBC 4 Los Angeles, CBS 2 Los Angeles]

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