A grass fire broke out on the American River Bike Trail close to Sacramento State this evening, making it the third one since Sept. 7.

Sac City Fire Department responded to the call at 5:23 p.m., with the cause under investigation, said Battalion Chief Craig Wiedenhoeft. The crew extinguished the fire within minutes of arrival.

The fire burned beside the water treatment facility on the river, toward the Alumni Grove.

“Everything is so tender-dry that smoking out here, campfires, camping, picnicking, anything you do out here, you have to be super, super cautious,” Wiedenhoeft said. “All it takes is a little spark with as dry as these fields are, and this stuff takes off.”

Wiedenhoeft said the fields are incredibly dry this year from three years of drought conditions.

Fifth year environmental sciences major Jacob Schmidt was skating on the trail when he saw smoke in the air. He believes a fire that close to campus is problematic for the school.

“It’s definitely a real susceptible area to fires. And this is not the first one that’s happened,” Schmidt said. “It’s a real bummer to see so many fires going on in that area.”

Sac State Police Chief Mark Iwasa said it would take a large-scale fire to require use of the Emergency Notification System (ENS) to notify students on campus. A message would appear on students’ cell phones, giving a warning about a potential threat from fire.

“That’s a very rare occurrence,” Iwasa said. “It would require a very large, uncontrolled blaze.”