Calmer winds aiding firefighters battling Southern California wildfire

Calmer winds help battle against wildfire

PEDLEY, Calif. — A 500-acre wildfire that briefly threatened a Southern California mobile home park was contained Thursday morning without causing any injuries or burning any buildings, a state fire spokeswoman said.

The Riverside County blaze was fully surrounded at 4:30 a.m., Jody Hagemann said.

Calmer winds helped about 235 firefighters who battled the flames overnight and set backfires to keep the blaze from spreading, she said.

“The weather cooperated, the winds died down,” she said.

Helicopters and air tankers flew in to battle the flames that erupted Wednesday afternoon near the Santiago Estates Mobile Home Park in the Glen Avon area north of Pedley. Residents of 32 homes in the 126-unit mobile home park were evacuated for a few hours.

By sundown the flames had moved into San Bernardino County, coming within a quarter mile of homes in Fontana.

There were no reports of injuries or damage.

Southern California has had blustery and dry weather this week, but the winds Wednesday were southwesterly, not the sometimes fierce northeasterly Santa Anas that fan the region’s worst wildfires.

Wildland fires that erupted Monday near Banning and Moreno Valley were held to a couple of acres.