Brush Blaze Chars 500 Acres in Chino Hills

A brush fire sparked by a damaged power line charred more than 500 acres in Chino Hills State Park before it was contained late Monday, while two Northern California wild-land fires continued to burn into the night.

No injuries were reported in any of the fires.

The San Bernardino County blaze, reported at 1:52 p.m., began near the ranger station and spread east, said California Department of Forestry Capt. Dan Frias. It was contained by 8 p.m. Monday, he said, and by this morning it was expected to be under control.

In Stanislaus National Forest in Tuolumne County, an out-of-control blaze that broke out at noon had engulfed 2,500 acres by Monday evening, said Roberta Dahl, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Forest Service. The fire was moving at a rapid rate, Dahl said, because many trees in its path were dead from drought and a bark beetle infestation.

“It’s heavy bug-kill timber in there,” she said. Nearly 300 firefighters were working throughout the night to slow the fire’s progress, she said.

In neighboring Alpine County, southeast of Lake Tahoe on the Nevada border, 150 firefighters were battling a smaller blaze, which had broken out about 2 p.m. By dusk, more than 50 acres of drought-parched timber and brush had been lost, officials said.

The fire, which officials speculated was a “sleeper fire” sparked by lightning last week, forced the evacuation of about 80 homes near Markleeville, as well as an unknown number of campers from Grover’s Hot Springs State Park and Pleasant Valley.