A fast-moving wildfire scorched about 25 brushy acres near Lake Henshaw Thursday, destroying a home and three outbuildings and forcing the closure of a back-country highway.
The brush fire broke out about 11:30 a.m. on state Route 76, south of Palomar Mountain, officials said.
The fire started at 5 acres in an abandoned building but spread quickly before Cal Fire reported via Twitter it had been stopped at 25 acres by about 1:15 p.m. The fire also prompted the closure of a stretch of the highway.
It took ground crews and personnel aboard four air tankers and several helicopters about 90 minutes to halt the spread of the flames, said Kendal Bortisser, a fire captain with the state agency.
Firefighters had the smoldering burn area roughly 50 percent contained by late afternoon, Bortisser said, adding that investigators were working to determine what sparked the blaze.
It's being called the Lake fire because it's near Lake Henshaw.
