Blaze in Santiago Canyon Is Brought Under Control

PORTOLA HILLS —  Firefighters finally contained a stubborn brush fire in Santiago Canyon on Wednesday night, but didn’t expect to have it extinguished until Friday morning, officials said.

Meanwhile, an unrelated fire farther north backed up traffic on the Riverside Freeway into Anaheim.

The Santiago Canyon fire, ignited accidentally by truck exhaust, began about 1 p.m. Tuesday near Live Oak Canyon and Santiago Canyon roads, and moved north toward the Modjeska Canyon Nature Preserve in the Cleveland National Forest.

The fire threatened homes in Portola Hills and Modjeska Canyon, but burned only one outbuilding as it consumed 325 acres of brush, Orange County Fire Authority officials said. By Wednesday night, firefighters had the blaze 100% contained--surrounded by trenches and firebreaks, officials said. But they expected it would take another day and a half to douse all the hot spots.

Another brush fire ignited at about 2:30 p.m. in Riverside County, about two miles beyond the Orange County line, officials said.

Firefighters stopped their trucks on the eastbound lanes of the Riverside Freeway to fight the blaze, and delays caused by spectators backed up westbound traffic to Corona and eastbound traffic to the Orange Freeway, California Highway Patrol Officer Bruce Moulden said.

The congestion was troublesome, but not any more serious than commuters might see on a holiday weekend, he said.

“It would be like any major outbound commute, like a Friday-night getaway,” Moulden said.

Because of the backup, though, the California Highway Patrol extended service hours of the Freeway Service Patrol, the free towing service for stranded motorists.

The fire trucks finally left and cleared the eastbound lanes about 6:30 p.m., after four hours, the CHP said.

The cause of Wednesday’s fire remains under investigation.