VALLEJO, Calif. -- A downed power line at the California Maritime Academy in Vallejo appears to have ignited a nine-alarm grass fire that burned for more than six hours Friday night and into Saturday morning, a Vallejo assistant fire chief said.

The fire began on the west side of Interstate 80 at around 11:00 p.m. Friday night and spread quickly up into the surrounding trees.

Once in the eucalyptus trees, strong winds carried embers across eight lanes of traffic to a nearby hillside, where fire raced uphill toward more than fifty homes.

“Just a lot of smoke, flames,” said witness Michelle Brisco. "We could actually hear the cracking and explosions.”

Strong winds, bone dry vegetation, and a steep slope made for a challenging fire fight.

Fire-fighters say pre-season efforts to clear out brush played a role in saving the homes. No structures were damaged or lost.

“[The area] has a fire history,” said Assistant Fire Chief Kurt Henke “So we went in and burned about twenty-five yard swaths below the homes… We got a lot of it and that aided us quite a bit in being able to close this fire line out.”

Assistant Chief Kurt Henke said the evidence clearly suggested that a powerline on the grounds of the California Maritime Academy was knocked down by a falling tree, which sparked the fire.

From there embers jumped Interstate 80.

“It took off and ran on us,” said Henke. “We put out the call immediately for multiple engines and hand crews from Calfire and surrounding departments.”

About 150 firefighters from Vallejo, Benicia, American Canyon, Fairfield, Cordelia and Rio Vista fire departments, as well as Cal Fire and the Vacaville Fire Protection District, battled the flames until the fire was declared under control at 5:30 a.m., Henke said.

Complicating the efforts to battle this fire were significant cutbacks in the Vallejo Fire Department, which closed a third fire station three days ago. A budget crisis in the bankrupt city of Wallejo has slashed fire fighter staffing, from twenty-eight firefighters a day to just eighteen.

The Vallejo Firefighters Union remains in a legal battle with the city over cutbacks.

Henke says they do the best with what they have. Fortunately, with assistance, it was enough to handle Saturday morning’s fire.