A fire tore through the cart barn at Teal Bend Golf Club just before 2 a.m. Monday, damaging a building that housed 50 to 60 golf carts along Reservoir Road near Garden Highway in Sacramento. No one was injured, but the blaze forced firefighters into a defensive posture and triggered a hazmat response after officials confirmed some of the carts were equipped with lithium-ion batteries.
Crews responded to find the cart barn fully involved and quickly ran into a problem that had nothing to do with flames: there was no reliable water source. As reported by KCRA, the nearest fire hydrants sat roughly two miles away, leaving firefighters without a reliable water source at the rural property. The fire took place at Teal Bend Golf Club, located at 7200 Garden Highway near the Sacramento River, according to ABC10.
Water Access Becomes A Challenge
With hydrants out of reach, Sacramento Fire Department crews faced a challenge securing water at the rural property. The nearest fire hydrants were roughly two miles away, according to KCRA.
Because of that gap, crews went defensive at the scene, per the same account — pulling firefighters back from entering the structure rather than risking a direct interior attack. KCRA's report notes that the department instead relied on an overhead drone to keep tabs on the fire from above, giving incident commanders a way to spot hotspots inside the building and reposition crews without sending anyone inside.
An Airport Next Door
Teal Bend Golf Club sits next to Sacramento International Airport. The club, which opened in 1997 and was designed by Sacramento golf architect Brad Bell, spans 250 acres of wetlands and fairways along the Sacramento River, according to GolfNow.
Sacramento launched a Drone First Responder trial with its Fire Department in November 2024, as Hoodline previously reported.
Why Lithium-Ion Batteries Change The Playbook
The presence of lithium-ion batteries among the stored carts is what pushed this from a routine structure fire into a hazmat response. Lithium-ion battery fires can involve thermal runaway and release hydrogen fluoride.
Four Sacramento firefighters received treatment after exposure during an electric-vehicle battery-fire cleanup, an incident Hoodline previously reported.
Monday's fire came nearly seven weeks after an August 11 fire involving a semi-truck trailer loaded with toy batteries on Kiessig Avenue in South Sacramento that generated toxic smoke and forced neighborhood road closures, according to CBS Sacramento.
Part Of A Wider Pattern At Golf Courses
A September 24 fire at a Maryland cart repair facility damaged more than 160 carts. The incident illustrates the risks such fires can pose to commercial facilities.
No injuries were reported in the Teal Bend fire, and the cause remains under investigation. Fire officials have not indicated when that investigation might conclude.
