Firefighters credit the weather with helping them control a brush fire that was stopped just 300 feet from homes in Chula Vista Monday.
The fire started around 7 p.m. in the 2000-block of Entertainment Circle, near the Sleep Train Amphitheatre and the Aquatica Water Park.
At the top of the hill were several new home communities stacked practically on top of each other.
The homes were spared because firefighters from San Diego and Chula Vista were able to stop the forward progress just three hundred feet from their doorsteps.
A nearby resident spotted the flames from their backyard and called 911.
Bright, orange flames could be seen moving up the hill toward houses.
"There are a few newer home complexes that are up there, so we were concerned [the fire] would get that way," said Capt. Chad Allison with San Diego Fire-Rescue.
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"However, the rate of speed was fairly slow, and there was no wind."
Firefighters extinguished the fire in about an hour.
No homes were damaged, and no one was forced to evacuate.
The brush fire burned one and a half acres total, according to fire officials.
There is still no word on how the fire started. Arson investigators have been called to the scene.
Santa Ana conditions were expected through parts of Southern California Tuesday.
Low humidity and persistent drought combined will produce an elevated fire danger.
