FRENCH VALLEY — Firefighters made quick work of a blaze that burned about three acres of brush and sent heavy smoke over fields just east of the French Valley Airport last Friday.

The fire, near Leon and Auld roads, was reported at 1:13 p.m., according to Cal Fire’s Cheri Patterson.

Firefighters were aided by a helicopter crew that transported water from Lake Skinner to douse the flames.

A flyover of the site in a Robinson R-44 helicopter owned by Starr Cooke showed a blackened patch of field, about three football field lengths in size, with flames slowly scorching the edges.

"I flew here for lunch, not to watch a fire," joked Cooke, a San Diego resident whose aircraft is based at Gillespie Field.

Black and brown smoke poured over the field adjacent to the airport’s landing strip, though no air traffic was disrupted.

The cause of the non-injury blaze is under investigation.

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