The Brava Fire broke out in Pismo Beach Sunday afternoon and burned just under 10 acres.
This isn’t the first time a fire has broken out on this hillside recently, and first responders say that previous experience helped with the latest firefight.
As Cameron Green left his house on Sunday afternoon, he was stopped by a frantic neighbor.
“There was a fire just, just behind me," Green said. "So I turned around and drove up here just from a few houses down, and the fire was already growing pretty quickly.”
Green said he grabbed a fire extinguisher, but the flames were quickly heading up the hillside.
“As it got about a third of the way up there, where it gets steeper, it really started taking off fast," Green said. "I mean like 6 or 10 feet per second.”
He said the fire department was on scene soon after his neighbor called 911. CAL FIRE spokesperson Ryan Grebe said the first crews at the scene made good progress until the fire hit the slope.
“With that steep terrain, it just made a good run and we had to order some more resources to contain it," Grebe said.
Forward progress was stopped two hours later at 9.5 acres.
Grebe said crews learned from the Barcelona fire that burned five acres nearby in June 2025.
“During that fire that we had previously, used a fire road that came around the backside of this mountain," Grebe said. "We used that road to insert engines here yesterday and access the fire from the top, because instead of having people hike from the bottom, it's much faster to insert engines at the top than have them work their way down.”
He said though there were houses nearby, no evacuation warnings or orders were issued due to the fire heading in the opposite direction. As of Monday morning, the fire was fully contained.
“One neighbor told me that he thinks he saw a suspicious guy coming up and he thinks that maybe he's related because the fire started right after," Green said.
Pismo Beach police said in a statement that they arrested Cortlan Jarrod Soles from Los Angeles on suspicion of felony arson in connection with the fire. He’s being held on a $100,000 bail.
Police say he was also arrested on August 5 in Grover Beach on suspicion of trespassing, shoplifting, and knowingly bringing or sending controlled substances or drug paraphernalia into a jail.
