Santa Ana Winds Lose Their Clout

Santa Ana winds continued to blow in Southern California on Wednesday, but the blasts that overturned trucks, knocked out power to thousands of homes and fanned brush fires on Tuesday had lost most of their power.

“It’s weird,” California Highway Patrol spokesman John Anderson said in Riverside. “It depends on where you are. At our office, it’s not bad. But 10 miles away there is an advisory.”

Drivers of high-profile vehicles, such as campers and truck rigs, were warned of 25 m.p.h. winds, with gusts up to 40 m.p.h., and advised to travel with caution on Interstate 15 from Corona to the Cajon Summit and on Interstate 10 from Ontario through the San Bernardino area.

Wind-driven flames that bedeviled firefighters Tuesday had been mostly contained, controlled or extinguished Wednesday.

The 500-acre Santa Ana River bottom blaze near Mira Loma was contained late in the day.

Crews also battled another fire near Little Mountain in San Bernardino, where a blaze scorched 120 acres on Wednesday.

Another fire burned 15 acres of hilly terrain in the Sepulveda Pass. Mountaingate Golf Course South formed a natural firebreak north of the blaze, helping four water-dropping helicopters and more than 100 firefighters to control its spread, Los Angeles city fire officials said. No structures were threatened.

In Orange County, a wind-whipped fire caused an estimated $130,000 damage to a home in the Anaheim area. Embers set the house next door ablaze, but firefighters quickly doused the flames.

Forecasters predicted that the winds would continue to weaken today.

Wednesday’s high at the Civic Center reached 78 degrees.