SOUTH COUNTY : Containment of Fire Expected by Tonight

The 5-day-old forest fire straddling Orange, San Diego and Riverside counties is expected to be fully contained by late this afternoon, according to the U. S. National Forest Service.

“The rainy weather today really did help us,” said Audrey Hagen, a spokeswoman for the U. S. National Forest Service, on Sunday.

Hagen said the remaining pockets of fire on Sunday were confined to a wooded area in Riverside County, just north of the San Diego County line. About 900 firefighters were on duty Sunday working to extinguish those final blazes, she said. Hagen added that no fires remained active in the Orange County portion of the Cleveland National Forest.

The forest fire, which started Wednesday at the Marine Corps’ Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, was 65% contained by Sunday afternoon, Hagen said. “We expect 100% containment by 6 p.m. Monday,” she said.

As of Sunday, the forest fire had burned 10,925 acres in the three counties, Hagen said. She said four firefighters had been injured during the past five days, but none of the injuries was life-threatening. They included a cut knee, a dislocated shoulder, chest pains and a minor burn, Hagen said.

The forest service has estimated that the total cost of extinguishing the blaze would be $2.5 million, including manpower and equipment. That figure does not include property loss, primarily in trees and shrub, due to the fire. The forest service had no loss estimate yet on the fire’s total property damage.

The cause of the fire has been attributed to “military training” at Camp Pendleton, Hagen said, adding that she had no information on the exact sort of training that caused the fire to ignite and spread.