Brush Fire Contained at 700 Acres
A brush fire that broke out alongside the Golden State Freeway just north of the Los Angeles County line was contained at 700 acres, Kern County fire officials said Friday.
The fire was ignited by a disabled car that caught fire Thursday on the freeway shoulder in Tejon Pass, near Fort Tejon.
The blaze jumped the eight-lane highway and burned along steep hillsides near Los Padres National Forest, authorities said.
No buildings were damaged, but the fire at one point threatened an elementary school on the edge of the town of Lebec, which has a population of 1,200.
“The winds were in our favor,” and the blaze was contained shortly before midnight Thursday, said Capt. Kent Harper of the Kern County Fire Department. “The whole western U.S. is hot and dry and it was amazing that we got it contained this fast.”
Five-hundred firefighters from the Kern County Fire Department, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, California Department of Forestry and Los Angeles County Fire Department fought the fire, Harper said.
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