Wind Spreads Brush Fire Near Rancho Mirage

Two homes, eight vehicles and 60 date palms were destroyed, a third house was damaged and three firefighters sustained minor injuries when a wind-whipped brush fire swept through a small desert community on the outskirts of Rancho Mirage on Thursday evening.

“We have a line around it that will hold now, if we’re lucky,” JoAnn Kay, a California Department of Forestry and Riverside County Fire Department spokeswoman, said shortly before nightfall. “We’re calling it shaky containment.”

Kay said the fire started about 4:45 p.m., when temperatures were between 115 and 120 degrees. Fanned by dry winds gusting up to 20 m.p.h., the blaze spread quickly through the date orchard and into the group of manufactured homes, Kay said. The origin of the fire is unknown, she said.

Fifty-five firefighters from the state, county and the cities of Palm Springs and Cathedral responded to the blaze, which took more than two hours to contain. Two firefighters suffered smoke inhalation and a third received superficial burns on the feet, Kay said.