California Wildfire Burns 300 Acres
Pastor Dale Morgan
California Wildfire Burns 300 Acres*
Monday March 5, 2007 7:31 AM
MORENO VALLEY, Calif. (AP) - A wildfire burned more than 300 acres
Sunday, briefly threatening a handful of Riverside County homes and
forcing the partial closure of a freeway before it was fully surrounded,
authorities said.
The fire broke out in steep terrain just after 11 a.m. and grew quickly
after being stoked by winds between 30 and 35 mph, said Capt. Randy
Nugent of the California Department of Forestry.
It came within 100 feet of a few of the half-dozen large homes in the
sparsely populated area, Nugent said.
The eastbound side of the Pomona Freeway was closed for several hours to
help firefighters get to the wildfire, Nugent said.
About 150 firefighters aided by a pair of helicopters fought the blaze,
which was 100 percent contained by 6 p.m.
There were no injuries, and no structures burned, Nugent said.
Nugent said the conditions felt more like a dry autumn day than the
middle of winter. Temperatures reached 78 degrees Sunday in some parts
of Riverside County.
``Fire season really never ends here in Southern California,'' Nugent
said. ``We had gusts today that were in excess of 30 miles an hour,
that's not typical for February or March, that's more typical of
September.''
The cause was under investigation.