Blaze Breaks Out Near Hemet

A new wildfire erupted Thursday afternoon near Hemet in western Riverside County, forcing the evacuation of at least one home and spreading over more than 500 acres.

The fire was 50% contained by 10 p.m. and full containment was expected by 8 a.m. today.

The blaze, called the Citrus fire, broke out about 2:45 p.m. in brush-choked Bautista Canyon, east of Hemet. Several homes near the small community of Fairview were threatened, a house in Bautista Canyon was evacuated and some roads were closed.

About 15 miles to the southwest, the Martin fire, which started Wednesday night, was about 60% contained after burning about 140 acres near Temecula. Riverside County Fire Capt. Rick Vogt said that fire should be controlled by this morning.

“But the way the last two weeks have been going, I’m not overconfident about anything,” he said.

Since July 1, 8,300 acres have burned in Riverside County, but that pales in comparison with the almost 35,000 charred by the Crown, Foothill and Pine fires in northwest Los Angeles County.

In Washington on Tuesday, a House-Senate conference committee approved $500 million in emergency funding for federal firefighters battling blazes in Southern California and elsewhere in the West. The funding was added to a $417-billion defense appropriations bill.

The 2-day-old Crown fire was more than half contained Thursday evening after blackening more than 11,400 acres near Acton, and officials said it should be fully contained by tonight.

No houses or other structures were in danger, officials said, and the last of several hundred evacuees were returning to their homes.

More than 2,500 firefighters were battling the fire, which started Tuesday afternoon in Arrastre Canyon.

Driven by erratic winds, the blaze spread rapidly north and east, leapfrogging from ridge to ridge and burning a bridge on Aliso Canyon Road.

The fire spread mostly through sparsely populated areas. A mobile home, an abandoned house and several outbuildings were lost.

The 6,000-acre Foothill fire near Santa Clarita and the 17,400-acre Pine fire near Lake Hughes were fully contained by Thursday morning. The Pine fire destroyed three houses.

Across the county, a new blaze in an open field near Santa Fe Dam in Irwindale burned about four acres Thursday afternoon before it was extinguished. No structures were threatened.