Manzanita Fire completely contained
UPDATE 6/30/17: The Manzanita Fire is completely contained Friday evening
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UPDATE: The Manzanita Fire is 98% contained Friday morning and remains at 6309 acres.
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UPDATE: The Manzanita Fire is 90% contained Thursday night and remains at 6309 acres.
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ORIGINAL STORY:
The Manzanita Fire burning along State Route 79 south of Beaumont has grown to 6,309 acres Wednesday morning and with 77% containment. Evacuation warnings for the fire have been lifted, Cal Fire officials said. Evacuation warnings were first put in place for Highland Home Road, east to Highway 243, including the communities of Poppet Flats, Silent Valley, Mt. Edna and Twin Pines.
Watch: Unlikely hero helps save crash victims moments before Manzanita Fire erupts south of Beaumont
The fire ignited Monday after a two-car crash triggered the flames, according to a Cal Fire spokeswoman. A smoke advisory from the South Coast Air Quality Management District has been extended into Thursday morning for portions of the Coachella Valley and San Gregornio Pass areas, and San Jacinto area. SCAQMD said air quality may reach unhealthy levels in those areas.
Photos: Firefighters battle Manzanita Fire south of Beaumont
#ManzanitaFire [update] south of Beaumont (Riverside Co) is now 5,000 acres and 20% contained. Evacs still in place.https://t.co/DX6RyqHkw3 pic.twitter.com/AHSjStncHS
— CAL FIRE (@CAL_FIRE) June 27, 2017
“We did know the car left the road, it came down to a rest here about 70 feet off the highway, and started the actual fire,” said Riverside County Fire Captain Lucas Spelman. “We’re not sure how the fire started, if the vehicle caught on fire itself, maybe a catalytic converter or some type of spark, but it definitely came from this vehicle.”
The victims in the crash were transported to a hospital with unspecified injuries.
The Manzanita Fire was closing in on the communities of Poppet Flats and Silent Valley, as well as other lightly populated areas between Highland Home Road and state Route 243 in the Banning Pass.
“So far I’m impressed by how skillfully and quickly our Cal Fire team attacked this fire,” said Marion Ashley with Riverside County Supervisor’s 5th District. “I remember, I had dreams of the Esperanza Fire, I lived through that, here we go again. When it spread to 1,500 acres I thought, we have a real problem.”
Ashley went on to say, “It looks like with a good firefight today [Tuesday], we will have this thing well under control.”
The non-injury blaze was reported shortly after 3 p.m. in the area of the 79 and Dump Road, near the Lamb Canyon landfill, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.
According to Cal Fire, 28 engine crews and 15 hand crews, numbering about 350 personnel, were deployed on the fire lines, aided until sundown by eight air tankers and three-water dropping helicopters.
An evacuation warning was in place for Highland Home Road East to Highway 243, including the communities of Poppet Flats and Silent Valley. A voluntary evacuation also was issued for Death Valley Road, Longhorn Road and Shirleon Drive.
There was no evacuation center listed.
“It was definitely a tough day yesterday [Monday], with temperatures 110 in the area, winds very erratic, we did have a few times where people needed to take extended rest but nobody was injured,” Spellman said.
Residents in several communities in Riverside and San Bernardino counties appeared to have mistakenly received alerts notifying them about fire evacuations and a Cal Fire official said the cause of the alert was under investigation.
The Riverside County Fire Department reported the error on Twitter and said there were no evacuation orders. Riverside city officials also took to Twitter to say that some cellphone users were receiving emergency evacuation alerts and that there alerts were not for Riverside.
The CHP shut down the four-lane highway between Gilman Springs Road to the south, near San Jacinto, and Interstate 10 to the north, causing a major traffic jam in both directions. The closure will last at least 12 hours, according to the CHP.
In the second hour of the blaze, voluntary evacuations were announced on Death Valley Road, Highland Home Road, Longhorn Road and Shirleon Drive, all of which are situated southeast of Beaumont. No evacuation center was listed.
The fire was rolling east with 10% containment as of 9:30 p.m. Monday but was up to 20% containment as of Tuesday morning.
The CHP completely shut down Route 79 between Gilman Springs Road to the south, near San Jacinto, and Interstate 10 to the north, causing a major traffic jam in both directions. The hard closure was expected to remain in effect until after midnight. As of Tuesday morning, both southbound lanes were open to traffic, along with one northbound lane.
Flames burned the hillsides on both sides of the four-lane highway, according to reports from the scene.
Fire crews from Corona, Hemet, the Idyllwild Fire Protection District, March Air Reserve Base, Murrieta, Riverside and San Bernardino County were working to encircle the brusher, according to Riverside County fire officials.
Check out your First Alert Weather Forecast as Red Flag warnings are issued for the Coachella Valley
