Containment of Three-County Fire Expected

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

“The rainy weather today really did help us,” Forest Service spokesman Audrey Hagen said Sunday as about 900 firefighters continued to battle the blaze, which has burned 10,925 acres in the three counties.

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. Fires in the Orange County portion of the Cleveland National Forest were no longer burning, she said.

The forest fire, which started Wednesday at 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.

Four firefighters were injured during the last five days, but none of the injuries were life-threatening, she said.

The cause of the fire has been attributed to “military training” at Camp Pendleton on Wednesday afternoon, when Marine Corps troops were conducting operations on the firing ranges near the San Mateo Canyon area of the sprawling base. Marine Lt. Patrick Gibbons said that an investigation was under way to determine the exact cause of the blaze.

Fed by offshore winds, the fire first spread northward into Riverside County, then shifted south into Orange County on Thursday morning.

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