The State - News from Aug. 27, 1986

Drinking state firefighters and others engaged in tractor-pull contests damaged private property while fighting a destructive 1985 fire, a suit against the California Department of Forestry charged. The damage was done by bulldozer crews fighting the 13,800-acre July, 1985, fire in the Lexington hills, three families charged in a suit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. The suit said the forestry department allowed its crews to “operate its vehicles on and through the plaintiffs’ property while they were under the influence of intoxicating liquors.” The fire did more than $7 million in damage, destroyed 42 homes in the Santa Cruz Mountains above Los Gatos and forced the evacuation of 4,500 people. State officials had no immediate comment on the suit.