LOCAL : Fog Aids Pendleton Firefighters

A thick layer of evening fog gave more than 900 firefighters a respite in their battle against a stubborn brush fire that broke out two days ago at Camp Pendleton and had burned into Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties.

“It’s just lying real low today,” said U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Delores Fremter. “When the winds kick up in the afternoon, we’ll see where it goes.”

At mid-morning, firefighters had begun to pull out of the Riverside County hamlet of Rancho Carrillo, which had been threatened by the fire Thursday evening.

The blaze had blackened 9,200 acres of tree-studded brushlands. The fog prevented six air tankers and four water-dropping helicopters from operating during the night, but they were back in operation after sunrise today, Fremter said.

Another fire official said the fog and humidity gave firefighters a chance to contain 30% of the blaze, which was burning generally northeast into the San Mateo Canyon Wilderness in Riverside County.