Blaze Blackens 150 Acres in East County : Fire: Hundreds battle flames in hills near freeway for four hours before taking control. A historic ranch is spared harm.

Whipped by hot summer winds, a brush fire raced up the steep, dry canyons bordering the Riverside Freeway in east Orange County on Saturday, burning more than 150 acres and narrowly missing a century-old hillside ranch.

As hundreds of frustrated motorists crept past the billowing black smoke at the Riverside County-Orange County line, five helicopters circled overhead, scooping buckets of algae-green water from ponds on the nearby Green River Golf Course to douse the flames.

The blaze began shortly before 2 p.m, when an emergency call brought firefighters to a small fire on the south side of the freeway. Within hours, 30-foot walls of flame were devouring the brittle chaparral, said Orange County Fire Capt. Dan Young.

The lone structures on the steep hillsides--a cluster of ranch buildings dating back to the 1850s--were saved by area firefighters who had recently held training exercises on the property.

“We feel very fortunate,” said Ed Widtfeldt, 64, the ranch’s owner, as he stared up at the blackened hillside. “[The ranch] is just 10 minutes from civilization, but it’s a piece of history.”

Widtfeldt said he and his wife Roxanne had left the ranch, which is in Orange County close to the Riverside County line, at about 1 p.m. to pick up a prescription at a drugstore.

When the couple returned about 2:30 p.m, their hillside spread, including a barn with six horses, was surrounded by flames, Widtfeldt said.

As the couple looked on, fire crews battled the fire by ground and air, with air tankers dropping Pepto-Bismol pink fire retardant.

By 4:30 p.m., the ranch was a green oasis on the blackened hill. Firefighters had even saved a stand of trees. “They did a good job,” said Widtfeldt, who had 300 feet of brush clearance around his ranch. “It was very scary. Horses and fire don’t mix well.”

Despite the winds, about 350 firefighters from the Orange County Fire Authority, the Riverside County Fire Department, the California Department of Forestry, the U.S. Forest Service, the Corona Fire Department and inmates from three Riverside County correctional facilities had largely contained the fire by about 6 p.m.

Young said about 80 firefighters would work through the night and hoped to have the fire under control by this morning.

The fire, which caused the Riverside Freeway to close for about half an hour, briefly threatened to crest the ridge and head for a Corona housing development, Young said.

One inmate firefighter helping to clear the dry brush was injured when he cut his hand and needed stitches, Young said. An Orange County firefighter also collapsed from heat exhaustion. Both were taken to hospitals where they were treated.

Young said the cause of the fire, which started 1 1/2 miles west of Green River Drive, is “definitely of a suspicious nature” and is under investigation.