Excelsior Fire evacuations east of Sacramento are being postponed as firefighters try to slow the blaze that burned buildings

Several outbuildings burned in southeastern Sacramento County and evacuations were ordered after a rapidly spreading grass fire tore through open pastures and jumped roads Sunday. Conditions were hot, dry and windy.

The vegetation fire, dubbed the Excelsior Fire, started around 11:45 a.m. and was reported near Excelsior Road and Jackson Road, where Highway 16 runs over it. Just after 12:30 p.m., firefighters reported that several structures, including a barn, had burned, but no homes were destroyed. Crews were assessing minor damage to several buildings.

By 4 p.m., as an army of firefighters and air power gained control of the blaze, Sacramento sheriff’s deputies issued evacuations in a one-mile radius of homes, ranches and businesses centered on Jackson and Sunrise. Roads in the area, however, remained closed to all but area residents.

The fire was mapped at 876 acres by state fire sources just before 2 p.m., while Sacramento Metropolitan Fire District spokesman Parker Wilbourn, battalion chief, said crews were able to keep the flames from spreading across Sunrise Boulevard after creating a “box” to contain the fire, Wilbourn said.

“This fire quickly spread to homes,” Wilbourn said, prompting crews to defend buildings along Jackson Road and ranches several miles south of the Mather Field area. He said livestock was threatened and firefighters and sheriff’s deputies went door to door to rescue residents.

While the grass fire was expected to be contained quickly Sunday night, firefighters were expected to be on scene through Monday to clear the fires. The cause of the fire was under investigation, Wilbourn said.

Throughout the afternoon, plumes of black and brown smoke could be seen from Rancho Cordova and along Highway 50.

Julieanna Marquez, 19, and her brother paced Jackson Road as their goats bleated in their trailer, safe from the flames. The wind whipped through fields of dead grass that stretched for miles as Marquez described how the fire caught her family by surprise and forced them to evacuate their 52-acre property.

“I’m grateful that everyone got out of it,” Marquez said.

A field next to their house burned down completely, but their home was saved by firefighters, Marquez said.

Marquez’s brother, Geno Scimemi, 24, said his cattle once grazed on the devastated farmland. Nearly $3,000 worth of hay bales went up in flames, he said.

“It basically mowed my lawn,” Scimemi added.

As the fire moved east, eating through dried-out vegetation, Metro Fire was assisted by Cal Fire attack teams and multiple air forces, including a 737 tanker sent to Northern California from Australia. Metro Fire’s helicopter and three fixed-wing aircraft focused their attention on the leading edge of the fire on Jackson and Sunrise.

The capital region and most of the Sacramento Valley are under their first red flag warning of the year as northerly winds and high temperatures add to the fire danger. On Sunday, the National Weather Service extended the red flag until 8 a.m. Tuesday.