An out-of-control wildfire in the southern reaches of Riverside County has grown to over 4,900 acres, prompting evacuation warnings in the northeastern reaches of the San Diego area, authorities reported Wednesday.
The blaze erupted about 12:30 p.m. Monday in the area of Richard Nixon Boulevard and Tule Peak Road in the Aguanga area, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.
The agency said numerous engine and hand crews — numbering over 250 personnel — from the county, Cal Fire San Diego and other agencies were sent to the location and encountered flames burning at a “dangerous rate” to the southeast through medium brush.
“Over the next three days, a change in the weather pattern shows an increasing chance of thunderstorms and lightning activity, firefighters will continue to work aggressively to gain additional control. Residents within the fire area are reminded to pay attention to evacuation warnings and orders,” Cal Fire and the RCFD said in a joint statement.
As of Tuesday morning, the head of the blaze, dubbed the Nixon Fire, was well inside the Beauty Mountain Wilderness, near Iron Spring Mountain, maintained and protected by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management.
One flank of the conflagration briefly crossed into San Diego County, blackening about 2 open acres before firefighters extinguished that section of flames, according to Cal Fire.
The proximity of the blaze to that corner of the San Diego area prompted sheriff’s officials to warn residents of sparsely populated areas northeast of Oak Grove to prepare to evacuate on short notice if necessary.
Riverside County Supervisor Kevin Jeffries, a former firefighter, asked local Fire Chief Bill Weiser at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors meeting if containment efforts might be complicated because of federal restrictions on using heavy machinery, such as bulldozers, to battle blazes in protected areas.
Weiser said he did not anticipate problems, and coordination with Bureau of Land Management administrators was “good.”
At the height of the fire, seven Cal Fire air tankers and four water-dropping helicopters were making runs on it. On Tuesday, aircraft were only required for targeted operations.
Four structures were damaged and one was destroyed Tuesday afternoon, but it was still unclear whether those were only sheds and outbuildings, or may have included homes. There are 900 structures threatened, according to Cal Fire. No injuries have been reported.
An evacuation order was implemented for the scattered homes south of Highway 371, north of the county line, west of Terwilliger Road and east of Foolish Pleasure Road.
An evacuation center was established at Temecula Valley High School. However, county Emergency Management Department Director Bruce Barton told the board there was no one utilizing the space, which is being managed by the Red Cross and Department of Public Social Services.
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
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