A brush fire threatened a home in the Southwest Cape Friday, but city firefighters were able to contain the blaze before the residence suffered any damage.

The fire started on a parcel of vacant scrub land designated as a city park on land records, according to neighbors.

The threatened residence, in the 2300 block of Southwest 23rd St., is located on a quiet residential street with the park on one side of the road and a canal behind.

The fire was reported by the daughter of the homeowner, Rose Vinet, who called 911 before she vacated to safety down the street.

“I looked out and saw a bunch of small fires in my front yard and the land across the street was in flames two stories high,” Vinet said.

“Within a matter of 15 minutes from the time I saw the fire, called 911 and got out, the fire was so big I was afraid that it would catch my house on fire,” a visibly distraught Vinet added as she stood down the street from her home.

“I don’t even know if they caught it in time before it did any damage,” she said as she waited by her vehicle. “You can see the ashes all over my car.”

Vinet was reliving some horrible memories as she watched the fire and hoped her mother’s home was spared.

She said her sister and her sister’s entire family had perished in their home out of state a year ago.

With hoses running from the hydrants on the same side of the street and through the brush from the street behind the park, the Cape Coral Fire Department quickly got the fire under control before it was able to do any damage to structures.

A couple of patches of burned grass and ashes were the extent of the damage to Vinet’s property.

Neighbors speculated the fire may have been caused by children who hang out there and occasionally are seen playing paintball in the scrub.

Another neighbor was concerned because he has been monitoring a pair of baby owls at the top of one of the pines.

The babies were in a nest in an adjoining tree and the nest had fallen down a day or so before. They were seen Thursday in the top of one of the other trees and he was hoping that they had left because he was not able to see them.

He was optimistic, saying that the nest falling out forcing the owls to fly was a good sign.