CONCOW, Calif. -- Police eradicated more than 9,000 marijuana plants from several potentially dangerous plantations in rural Butte County in an effort to make the area safer for firefighters fighting nearby wildfires, the sheriff's office said Thursday.

Authorities said the plants, some of which were 3 feet tall, were found near the community of Concow and could have had an illegal street value after harvest of about $37.8 million.

The 9,459 pot plants were found in several plantations spread out over a half mile in steep and rugged terrain. The gardens were set up similarly to other operations run by drug trafficking organizations, police said.

The Butte County Sheriff's Marijuana Suppression Unit found pot in the area on June 13.

Because of recent fires, police shared the information with Cal Fire so that no firefighters would be in danger of getting too close.

On Monday, Cal Fire said one of its bulldozers pushed into the growing area. Police responded by entering and clearing three of the five plantations. On Tuesday, police returned to finish clearing the other gardens.

No booby traps or trip wires were located in any of the marijuana plantations. No firearms were found.

The gardens were being watered by a gravity-fed irrigation system using black plastic pipe supplied with water from a nearby creek.

Four abandoned campsites were found throughout the garden system. Based on items found by police, it appears that there may have been five people caring for the marijuana plants.