ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST (CNS) - Firefighters on land and in the air have stopped the spread and contained 80 percent of a brush fire that grew to 156 acres along the northbound Golden State (5) Freeway at Templin Highway in the Angeles National Forest, a fire official said today.
Officials have yet to project a time of when the brush fire will be 100 percent contained, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Nathan Judy said.
“We want to make sure that there are no hot spots within the interior of the fire,” Judy said.
The fire was reported at 12:46 p.m. Saturday by a witness who told the California Highway Patrol that a black Kia Sorrento was burning on the right shoulder.
By 12:53 p.m., the car was fully engulfed in flames pushed by northeast winds into the brush along the road. The blaze had a “moderate rate of spread,” Judy said. At about 4 p.m., the U.S. Forest Service and Los Angeles County Fire Department reported the flames had grown to at least 150 acres but were 50 percent contained.
They said good progress was made with fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters.
Around 4:30 p.m. officials reported that the spread of the brush fire had stopped. At 6:35 p.m., officials said the blaze was 60 percent contained and that crews would work overnight to finish clearing containment lines of vegetation around the fire.
One firefighter suffered minor burns and was treated at the scene, Judy said. He added that the U.S. Forest Service will conduct an independent investigation into how the fire started.