Firefighters keep eyes on hotspots after battling 3 blazes Wednesday near border of Laguna Beach

Firefighters watched for hot spots Thursday morning from multiple brush fires that burned for about two hours Wednesday in an unincorporated greenbelt area on the border of Laguna Beach and prompted the closure of the San Joaquin Hills toll road near the Laguna (133) Freeway.

The Orange County Fire Authority was first alerted to the brush fires about 3:30 p.m. Wednesday along the southbound toll road just west of the Laguna Freeway, said OCFA Capt. Sean Doran.

There were three separate blazes “along this area within 300 yards of each other,” Doran said. “There was one small spot fire we had go across to the northbound side, but we made that a priority drop” and it was quickly extinguished, Doran said.

One fire was along the Newport Coast, he said.

“We’ve made significant progress” on extinguishing the blazes, Doran said around 5 p.m. Wednesday. Firefighters were then “collectively making good progress on it’’ with air drops and ground crews with bulldozers.

The fires’ progress was stopped around 5:30 p.m. after scorching about eight acres, the OCFA said.

The southbound lanes of the toll road remained closed early Thursday morning.

There was no immediate word of any structure damage or injuries and investigators were at the scene to determine a cause of the fires, the OCFA reported.

Support our coverage by becoming a digital subscriber.