Firefighters worked overnight and Wednesday to extinguish a wildfire that has spread over large swaths of open terrain on the grounds of Camp Pendleton and into the adjacent Cleveland National Forest.
As of 6 p.m. Tuesday, the non-injury blaze had charred an estimated 1,183 acres, authorities said. By then, a contingent of nearly 500 firefighters had gotten the burn area roughly 40% surrounded by firebreaks.
The conflagration, dubbed the Mateo Fire, has posed no threats to inhabited areas or infrastructure since erupting in the northwestern reaches of the Marine Corps installation north of Oceanside shortly before 2 p.m. Monday, said Daniel Lanari, a spokesman for Cleveland National Forest.
"Efforts for rest of today and into tonight will be to continue creating and managing containment lines with full suppression attack on the fire itself, always with a focus on firefighter safety," Lanari said late Tuesday afternoon.
The flames have spread over "difficult canyon terrain in heavy fuels and dense vegetation" since igniting for unknown reasons near San Mateo Creek and eventually burning its way into the federally protected lands of the San Mateo Canyon Wilderness, Lanari said.
