LAKESIDE, Calif. (AP) — A forest fire that forced the evacuation of several Southern California campgrounds grew early Thursday, with flames churning through tall trees and sending up a massive plume of smoke.
Crews were using water-dropping aircraft to attack the 1,000-acre blaze in a remote location of the San Bernardino Mountains, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Lee Beyer said.
Nearly 200 campers, most of them children, were evacuated from several wilderness sites after flames were reported Wednesday some 90 miles east of Los Angeles.
A lack of heavy winds aided firefighters working in steep terrain, but the blaze in the San Gorgonio Wilderness area was just 5 percent contained.
Further south, crews slowed the spread of a wildfire near a casino in northern San Diego County that forced evacuations.
The fire that broke out Wednesday afternoon on the Barona Indian Reservation burned about 150 acres of dry brush, state fire spokesman Kendal Bortisser said. It was 10 percent contained.
About seven homes were evacuated, but by nightfall no mandatory evacuation orders remained in place, Bortisser said.
The cause of both fires is under investigation.
