Fire Menaces But Spares Navy Homes in Tierrasanta

A fast-moving brush fire briefly threatened a Navy housing complex in Tierrasanta Wednesday before San Diego firefighters brought the blaze under control.

Fire officials reported no injuries or structures damaged in the blaze, which burned between 8 and 10 acres near Balboa Avenue and Interstate 15. Local residents said the fire began about 3:15 p.m., and the Fire Department reported it under control 45 minutes later.

Sandi O’Brien, who operates a day-care center at her home, said her home and others in the complex were saved because last Friday the Navy finished clearing a 6-foot-wide area of brush around the houses.

“We were real lucky. Believe me, if it wasn’t for the Navy clearing the area, some of our homes would’ve burned,” O’Brien said.

“The fire came right up to the edge of the cleared area, but never made it beyond our back fence. We have a tree in our back yard that has branches leaning over the area and it got singed.”

She added that the fire burned so hot on the dry brush that the heat melted some plastic toys that were lying under the tree.

When the fire was spotted, O’Brien said, she joined other neighbors in hosing down the dry brush beyond the fire clearing.

“All of a sudden, a 300-foot plume of red smoke puffed in the air,” she said. “You could feel the heat.

“I dropped the hose and went inside the house to pick up the kids. We all ran into the street, where we stayed until the fire trucks arrived and the firemen told us to stay back.”

A Fire Department spokeswoman said the cause of the fire is under investigation.