UPDATE: 5:15 p.m., Aug. 20, 2020:
A wildfire erupted amid a scorching summer heat wave Thursday in a sparsely developed area at the San Diego-Riverside county line, blackening dozens of open acres but causing no reported structural damage.
The blaze broke out for unknown reasons shortly before 11:30 a.m. on a hillside off Tenaja Truck Trail in De Luz, moving through heavy brush in an unincorporated back-country community where homes are spread out on large lots, according to Cal Fire.
Personnel aboard air tankers and water-dropping helicopters were the first to reach the site of the blaze, dubbed the Volcano Fire. Ground crews from the Riverside area, San Diego County and Cleveland National Forest also were dispatched but had difficulty immediately reaching the remote location, which is accessible to fire engines only via winding dirt roads.
By late afternoon, firefighters had halted the spread of the flames at about 50 acres and had kept them from getting closer than about a quarter- mile from the nearest residences, Cal Fire Capt. Thomas Shoots said. The multi- agency teams were expected to remain on the lines into the nighttime hours, dousing hot spots and clearing fire breaks, he said.
The intense midday heat — the high in nearby Fallbrook was 95 degrees — left one person with mild heat exhaustion symptoms at the scene of the blaze, Shoots said.
Paramedics were called in to treat the patient, a member of a Discovery Channel documentary crew that has been shadowing Cal Fire personnel for a television program. No other injuries were reported.
The cause of the fire was under investigation.
