Fire in Mecca grows to 564 acres, 70% contained
Update – 3/19/19:
(6:30 pm) Cal Fire announced the fire remains at 564 but containment has increased to 85-percent.
—————————-
Update – 3/18/19:
(3 pm) Cal Fire officials confirmed the fire remains at 564 acres but is now 70-percent contained.
—————————–
A fast-moving brush fire has torched 564 acres of brush in Mecca and is 68 percent contained according to Cal Fire. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has Lincoln closed off between Avenue 68 and 70 in Mecca.
CAL Fire tweeted Saturday morning two firefighters suffered minor injuries and smoke is still visible as firefighters work to gain full containment.
Firefighters were able to save two threatened structures. One of those structures is a hacienda, where ranch workers evacuated two horses. The owner of the hacienda was not home at the time of the fire. A nearby ranch, generally rented out to visitors, was also unoccupied according to a battalion chief on scene.
The blaze reportedly sparked in an area on heavy vegetation. Light winds in the area could accelerate the spread of the fire, according to Cal Fire.
“There was some erratic winds that kind of played havoc with our abilities to contain,” said Battalion Chief Bonifacio De La Cruz with Cal Fire Riverside County Fire.
{“author_name”:”Lauren Coronado KESQ”,”author_url”:”https://www.facebook.com/LaurenCoronadoKESQ/”,”provider_url”:”https://www.facebook.com”,”provider_name”:”Facebook”,”success”:true,”height”:889,”html”:”&#lt;div id=”fb-root”&#gt;&#lt;/div&#gt;n&#lt;script async=”1″ defer=”1″ crossorigin=”anonymous” src=”https://connect.facebook.net/en_US/sdk.js#xfbml=1&version=v3.2″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;&#lt;div class=”fb-video” data-href=”https://www.facebook.com/LaurenCoronadoKESQ/videos/2081201818645796/?__xts__[0]=68.ARCcr-JdJryUZGCBGdyQfxFGpS19jc40l7CD8j1hxzj3zCOJY0P69CFXVaP_mvBD9US_dkdvVlgcs0Wy_k1zlVHyZeQIMPrNQ6cPBn0EcKpcws9L0Qpkfuj7eyfHUxl6ZJYboR6vfbp0N8N-iHAQA7WO7k32tTOLty2ltdDT4gSjnq8ILjJi7U9y_qOZJnrQT5kfo1tmZwwLiOnNFVFtQzM6S8C4kzceznAHV3p1tlrp2TYS0fpCAUsRauy13gmfhWxmTHhCNvY9Z5r10KZQLyQEP_CaYRhiiOwRWRkJX4vPKf68yTLqmhR1epDjPv8WT2ZgPfvUoYtLCYl0K8H4kCmKLENZgjE5NeS9plFK”&#gt;&#lt;blockquote cite=”https://www.facebook.com/LaurenCoronadoKESQ/videos/2081201818645796/” class=”fb-xfbml-parse-ignore”&#gt;&#lt;a href=”https://www.facebook.com/LaurenCoronadoKESQ/videos/2081201818645796/”&#gt;&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;p&#gt;20 acre brush fire in Mecca continues to burn. Two horses evacuated so far..two structures threatened.&#lt;/p&#gt;Posted by &#lt;a href=”https://www.facebook.com/LaurenCoronadoKESQ/”&#gt;Lauren Coronado KESQ&#lt;/a&#gt; on Friday, March 15, 2019&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;&#lt;/div&#gt;”,”type”:”video”,”version”:”1.0″,”url”:”https://www.facebook.com/LaurenCoronadoKESQ/videos/2081201818645796/?__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARCcr-JdJryUZGCBGdyQfxFGpS19jc40l7CD8j1hxzj3zCOJY0P69CFXVaP_mvBD9US_dkdvVlgcs0Wy_k1zlVHyZeQIMPrNQ6cPBn0EcKpcws9L0Qpkfuj7eyfHUxl6ZJYboR6vfbp0N8N-iHAQA7WO7k32tTOLty2ltdDT4gSjnq8ILjJi7U9y_qOZJnrQT5kfo1tmZwwLiOnNFVFtQzM6S8C4kzceznAHV3p1tlrp2TYS0fpCAUsRauy13gmfhWxmTHhCNvY9Z5r10KZQLyQEP_CaYRhiiOwRWRkJX4vPKf68yTLqmhR1epDjPv8WT2ZgPfvUoYtLCYl0K8H4kCmKLENZgjE5NeS9plFK”,”width”:500}
A fire attack helicopter was also on scene for several hours. One witness says he saw 15 to 20 foot flames burn through acres of brush.
“The whole place was fully involved and I did see these palm trees that were just exploding like Christmas trees, all in a row,” Stephen Baumbach of Palm Springs told News Channel 3.
IID also confirmed they have shut down power in the area.
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/KESQLauren/status/1106693633686700033″,”author_name”:”Lauren Coronado”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/KESQLauren”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;IID us shutting off power in the area. Mecca Fire burning 30 acres. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/4Y4bA5eprq”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/4Y4bA5eprq&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Lauren Coronado (@KESQLauren) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQLauren/status/1106693633686700033?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;March 15, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
{“url”:”https://twitter.com/KESQLauren/status/1106691524413157377″,”author_name”:”Lauren Coronado”,”author_url”:”https://twitter.com/KESQLauren”,”html”:”&#lt;blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”&#gt;&#lt;p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”&#gt;Two horses have been evacuated so far. Handlers say only two horses were on the ranch. &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/hashtag/MeccaFire?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;#MeccaFire&#lt;/a&#gt; 30 acres burning so far. &#lt;a href=”https://t.co/sc2oDML4Vk”&#gt;pic.twitter.com/sc2oDML4Vk&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/p&#gt;– Lauren Coronado (@KESQLauren) &#lt;a href=”https://twitter.com/KESQLauren/status/1106691524413157377?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”&#gt;March 15, 2019&#lt;/a&#gt;&#lt;/blockquote&#gt;n&#lt;script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″&#gt;&#lt;/script&#gt;n”,”width”:550,”height”:null,”type”:”rich”,”cache_age”:”3153600000″,”provider_name”:”Twitter”,”provider_url”:”https://twitter.com”,”version”:”1.0″}
It is unclear what sparked the fire at this time. CAL Fire reports two firefighters suffered minor injuries.
Stay with News Channel 3 for the latest updates on this developing story.
