Firefighters Gain Upper Hand on East County Blazes : Hot spots: 2,000 acres of brush are consumed by series of fires but crews are now being pulled from lines.

More than 1,000 firefighters kept watch Monday on East San Diego County brush blazes that consumed more than 2,000 acres over the weekend, but most were due to be released from duty by Tuesday or reassigned to other fires in Los Angeles County, forestry agencies said.

Weekend temperatures that topped 100 degrees--combined with exceptionally low humidity and erratic winds--caused the blazes to spread rapidly, doing more than $360,000 in damage to personal property, said Audrey Hagen, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry.

All the property damage was caused by the fire south of Alpine near Loveland Reservoir in the Cleveland National Forest. Sparked Saturday by an illegal campfire, the blaze burned 1,550 acres--most of it steep terrain covered with chaparral and inaccessible to engines and bulldozers, U.S. Forest Service Fire Information Officer Roger Wong said.

“It was over 100 degrees the day the fire started, with 11% humidity, and that’s real dry. It doesn’t take a real strong wind to push that fire,” Wong said. The blaze was a classic forest service fire, he added, accessible only to hand crews and air tankers.

But where the fire encroached on settled areas--mostly along Japatul Road--it left substantial damage: one home was destroyed and two were damaged. Also destroyed were two trailers, a mobile home, more than a dozen cars--some of them junked--20 sheds and garages, a satellite dish and an aviary, Hagen said.

A number of chickens on a chicken ranch in the area died of smoke inhalation, Wong said.

The fire began on private property within the forest boundaries, Wong said, adding that any campfire outside a designated campsite is illegal.

At the height of the blaze, 949 firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the state Department of Forestry and other local fire agencies battled the blaze. They were supported by aircraft, Wong said.

While 800 firefighters from agencies throughout Southern California kept watch on the fire Monday, Wong said his agency expected to fully contain the fire by Monday evening. It was expected to be fully controlled by Tuesday, though about 100 firefighters will stay on through Wednesday to watch for flare-ups. The fire is the largest in the Cleveland National Forest in two years, he said.

More than 200 firefighters kept watch Monday on a blaze at the Manzanita Indian Reservation, about 25 miles east of Alpine. That fire, which started Sunday, burned more than 800 acres, Hagen said. It was fully under control Monday and most firefighters were to be released from duty.

Nine firefighters suffered minor injuries in those two fires, Hagen said.

Two other weekend brush fires--one near Julian and one near the Otay Reservoir--burned 30 acres but were out by Monday evening, Hagen said.

Fifty Department of Forestry firefighters battled a brush fire near Tecate Monday afternoon and contained it within 20 minutes, a spokeswoman said. That fire burned about 4 acres, she said, and some firefighters will stay in the area to watch for flare-ups.

“We still have real heavy fuel out there,” she said.