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Border & Immigration

Wildfire Spreads In Campo Area; One Firefighter Injured

This is a developing story.
KPBS
This is a developing story.

UPDATE: 5:35 p.m., June 6 2018:

A fast-moving wildfire spread across hundreds of open acres in southeastern reaches of San Diego County Wednesday, sending a thick column of brown-and-white smoke into the air near the U.S.-Mexico border but posing no immediate structural threats.

The wildfire broke out for unknown reasons near the 31000 block of State Route 94 in the Cameron Corners area of Campo at about 9:45 a.m., according to Cal Fire.

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Within 90 minutes, the flames had burned roughly 25 acres as crews worked to corral them on the ground and aboard air tankers and water-dropping helicopters, the state agency reported.

As of mid-afternoon, the burn area had grown to about 265 acres, officials said.

Authorities issued evacuation warnings to residents along North Campo Truck Trail and, several hours later, to people who live on La Posta Road, informing them that any direct structural threats that could arise were believed to be at least two hours from materializing.

Due to the approaching flames, the latter road was closed to through traffic between SR-94 and Old Highway 80.

By 2:30 p.m., officials had rescinded the first of the two evacuation advisories due to the movement of the blaze away from the potentially threatened area. As of 3:30 p.m., crews had the spread of the fire halted and its perimeter about 5 percent contained, at which point the other evacuation notice was lifted.

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One crew member suffered a minor injury while helping fight the fire and was taken to a hospital, Cal Fire Capt. Issac Sanchez said.

The cause of the blaze — dubbed the Recycle Fire due to its proximity to a rural byway known to locals as "Recycle Road" — was not immediately clear, Sanchez said.

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