Season’s First Big Brush Fire Burns 400 Acres

About 150 firefighters from throughout San Diego County battled the area’s first major brush fire of the season Wednesday. The blaze--aided by hot, dry weather and windy conditions--consumed 400 to 500 acres in eastern San Diego and Santee.

No one was injured in the fire, and no homes were threatened.

However, the fire burned out of control for four hours, and authorities described it as unusually intense for late April--and as a bad portent for the coming dry months. Such intense fires don’t usually occur until May, when the brush fire season starts in earnest, noted Larry Cooke, a spokesman for the San Diego Fire Department.

“It’s a bad sign,” Cooke said.

He noted that a dry winter and the presence of considerable dead vegetation--the legacy of a winter freeze--have led to particularly volatile brush fire conditions this year. Authorities are warning homeowners to quickly clear excess brush from their properties.

“It’s really going to be important to clear that brush this season,” Cooke said.

Wednesday’s fire, which occurred in an unpopulated area on the north end of Fanita Parkway near Santee Lakes, was declared contained at 5:40 p.m., Cooke said. Most of the fire occurred within the city limits of San Diego, Cooke said, although a portion of Santee was also involved. The cause of the fire is being investigated.

San Diego fire units first responded at 1:41 p.m. In all, 150 firefighters from more than a dozen county departments responded. A Sheriff’s Department helicopter also assisted in putting out the blaze. Using an airborne bucket, the helicopter doused the fire with sewage water scooped from a nearby treatment plant--the most convenient water source, authorities said.

Aiding the blaze were high temperatures, gusty winds and low humidity, authorities said.

The high temperature at Lindbergh Field Wednesday was 85 degrees, 10 degrees below the record high, set in 1910. The thermometer hit 96 in Spring Valley, 95 in Fallbrook and 94 in El Cajon and Santee.

Temperatures were expected to begin a downward trend Thursday, as the vestiges of a Santa Ana condition slowly leave.