Scripps Ranch Blaze Was One of Three : Firefighters Halt Flames That Periled Homes

Three brush fires, two in Scripps Ranch and one near Lake Hodges, threatened some homes and closed a highway Friday.

The first Scripps Ranch fire, which began about 3:15 p.m., burned 42 acres of brush and briefly threatened homes in the 10,000 block of Canyon Lake Drive before it was contained by San Diego firefighters. It took 150 firefighters and air units from the U.S. Forest Service and California Department of Forestry an 1 1/2 hours to contain the blaze.

San Diego Fire Department spokesman Bob Glass said some people were evacuated from their homes, but it was a precautionary measure and no structures were damaged and no injuries were reported.

A second, 2-acre blaze “over the hill� from the first was also battled Friday afternoon, Glass said. Firefighters from the 42-acre fire were sent to fight the smaller one and contained it in a half hour. No structures were threatened and no injuries were reported there.

The California Department of Forestry sent a bulldozer and two air tankers to help fight the 42-acre blaze and the U.S. Forest Service dispatched two helicopters.

A 25-acre brush fire off of the Del Dios Highway in North County was also contained Friday, a CDF spokeswoman said.

That fire began shortly after 8 a.m. Friday, 30 miles east of Escondido near Lake Hodges.

More than 150 firefighters from the Escondido and Rancho Santa Fe fire departments battled the fire with the assistance of air tankers, a helicopter and a bulldozer, said Roxanne Stager of the CDF.

The section of the Del Dios Highway, between Mt. Israel Road and Lake Drive, was closed because of the fire, a spokesperson for the state highway patrol said.

No structures were threatened and no injuries were reported, Stager said.

Causes of the three fires are being investigated.