San Diego

4S Ranch Fire Contained

Crews on Thursday evening had mopped up a fire that forced the evacuations of homes and nearby Oak Valley Middle School.

Homes in a one-block area along Palomino Valley Road and the middle school were evacuated after a vegetation fire broke out in the 4S Ranch area.

Students were taken by bus to the Westview High School gym, where parents were told to pick them up.

Crews contained the fire to 6 acres, fire officials said.

The fire, first reported at 3 p.m., was sending thick smoke above the area of 42 Ranch Parkway and Dove Creek Road, west of Interstate 15 and south of Camino Del Norte.

Fire officials said the fire had torched a riverbed behind homes on Palomino Valley Road and has a slow rate of spread.

No injuries have been reported and no home have been damaged.

Conditions were favorable to slow the rate of spread, NBC 7's Dagmar Midcap said. Humidity was at 50 percent, winds were in the single digits and temperatures were in the 70s.

A resident who lives in the area told NBC 7 that he managed to "go to my neighbors, turn their sprinklers on, keep our lawns totally wet. Make sure the fires didn't come up this way."

Fire investigators said the fire is believed to be accidental and was caused by a stray spark from a welding torch blowing into brush.

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