A wind-driven wildfire charred dozens of acres Tuesday in the sparsely developed northeastern reaches of San Diego County, damaging structures and forcing pre-dawn evacuations before crews could gain the upper hand on the flames.
The non-injury blaze — one of two to erupt amid gusty Santa Ana conditions about five miles apart over a span of less than an hour — began spreading shortly after 12:30 a.m. Tuesday off Lilac Road, near Old Highway 395, according to Cal Fire.
Sheriff's deputies cleared people out of nearby rural neighborhoods as ground crews and personnel aboard a pair of water-dropping Black Hawk firefighting helicopters battled the flames.
Air tankers, which are not cleared for nighttime flying locally, were put on standby for possible activation at daybreak. By dawn, however, firefighters had made enough progress to make deployment of the planes unnecessary, Cal Fire Capt. Robert Johnson said.
Crews had the spread of the blaze, dubbed the Lilac Fire, halted at about 85 acres by shortly after 9:30 a.m., Johnson said. As of early afternoon, the smoldering burn area was roughly 30% contained, according to Cal Fire.
There were reports of structural damage at midday, though the number and type of affected edifices remained unclear, Johnson said.
The blaze started about 45 minutes after another one to the south, in an open area just west of Interstate 15, near Canonita Drive in Pala Mesa. That blaze — along with a third fire that burned less than an acre in the Fallbrook area after breaking out at about 1:20 a.m. — caused no reported structural damage or injuries.
The causes of the fires were under investigation.
