Firefighters responded Tuesday to a small vegetation fire off North Patterson Avenue near Goleta, according to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

Crews from the county and Los Padres National Forest were dispatched shortly after 8:30 a.m. to the fire on the 1000 block of North Patterson, said fire Capt. Scott Safechuck.

The first firefighters on scene found a 50-by-100-foot area charred, Safechuck said, and were able to stop the forward progress of the flames in about 30 minutes.

All told, about a quarter acre burned near an avocado orchard, Safechuck said.

No structures were threatened, he said, and ground crews remained on scene building containment lines and mopping up.

Bulldozers and fixed-wing aircraft had been requested, but were canceled.

Investigators determined that a “gopher gasser” eradication device was the cause of the fire, Safechuck said.