Paradise Hills Fire Destroys Home, Damages 2 Others : Destruction: Canyon blaze in Southeast San Diego may have been caused by fireworks. Two firemen were treated for smoke inhalation.

A fire raced up a brush-covered Southeast San Diego canyon Thursday afternoon, destroying one house and damaging two others.

Two of the 70 firefighters who responded to fight the Paradise Hills blaze were treated for smoke inhalation, said San Diego Fire Department Capt. Al Minnick.

When the department responded, the fire was in the 5700 block of Rancho Hills Drive, about a quarter mile east of the National City border and about half a mile north of the South Bay Freeway.

Neighbors said the destroyed house, which is across the canyon in the 2600 block of Morningside Street, belongs to a couple on vacation in Texas with their two children.

They say Jim and Debbie Branham, who are both in the Navy, have lived in the house for five years.

Damage to their house was estimated at $120,000. The Branhams’ next-door neighbor, Remy Thompson, suffered $40,000 in damage to her property, where she has lived in for 19 years. It destroyed her trailer, which contained books she used in her beauty business. A third house had minor damage to its roof.

The fire started at the base of the canyon, which backs up against the South Bay Freeway, said Lionel Montano, 25, who was at his sister’s home in the 5700 block of Rancho Hills Drive when fire trucks started arriving at 1:20 p.m.

The fire sped from the canyon base, which is next to a Little League baseball diamond, up to the houses, he said, which is a distance of about 800 yards.

“It caught on to all the rubbish thrown in the canyon,” he said.

“There’s a lot of brush in there, and pieces of trees people cut off and threw over the side,” he said.

Firefighters brought the blaze under control within 2 1/2 hours, but they were still in the canyon after 6 p.m., putting out remnants of the blaze, Montano said.

“It ruined that house,” he said.

Montano said neighbors at the scene said they had seen youngsters setting off fireworks by the baseball field.

Minnick said firecrackers could have started the blaze, which will remain under investigation.

The three-alarm fire brought out 14 units from the San Diego, South Bay and Heartland fire departments, he said.