Smoke from the Camp Pendleton fires is still visible in Temecula. (Kerri S. Mabee/SWRNN)
Update @ 1:08 p.m. Sept. 16: Smoke may be visible over Camp Pendleton today where government crews were trying to put out a wildfire that started Friday afternoon.
About 1,200 acres have been blackened since the fire started Friday afternoon.
Marine spokesman Lt. Ryan Welsh said the fire, in the north-central section of the base, was believed to have started during artillery training.
The fire was about 70 percent contained by noon today.
“The fire’s not really growing at all anymore,” Welsh said.
“Residents are going to see continued heavy smoke plumes throughout the day, because of the previously unburned pockets within the fire perimeter,” Welsh said.
Firefighters from the U.S. Forest Service and Cal Fire assisted in suppression efforts, Welsh said.
No injuries were reported and no structures were threatened.
Update @ 6:11 p.m. Sept. 15: The Camp Pendleton Fire Department, as well as mutual aid assets, today had contained the south and west portions of a wildland range fire that started Friday in the northern portion of the Marine Corps base.
“The fire began Friday during a training exercise at approximately 12 p.m. in the Whiskey Impact Area of the base and had burned more than 500 acres
as of 3 p.m. today,” according to a release from the base’s Public Affairs Office. ”The fire is moving rapidly towards the north where the base borders the Cleveland National Forest.”
The Camp Pendleton Fire Department and mutual aid assets are on the scene, as well as one mutual aid helicopter providing support.
The blaze, which began as four small brush fires apparently sparked by military exercises, spread over open training grounds at Camp Pendleton amid
sweltering late-summer heat, USMC Lt. Ryan Welsh said.
As military crews were working to contain those four fires, a fifth broke out toward the south end of the base about 4 p.m. Within 90 minutes, personnel had contained that burn area to about six acres.
There are no reports of any injuries or damage to any structures, and there is currently no threat to any structures.
Original: A series of small brush fires apparently sparked by military exercises spread over open training grounds at Camp Pendleton continued to send smoke into parts of Southwest Riverside today.
According to Riverside County Fire Department spokeswoman Melody Hendrickson, the fire is not threatening any structures in Temecula.
The spate of non-injury blazes began erupting toward the center of the Marine Corps installation early Friday afternoon, USMC Lt. Ryan Welsh said.
As military crews worked to contain those four fires, a fifth broke out toward the south end of the base about 4 p.m.on Friday.
Within 90 minutes, personnel had contained that burn area to about six acres.
There were no known structural threats in the early evening, though the flames were “sending up a lot of smoke,” Welsh said.
*City News Service contributed to this report.
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