An overnight brush fire in Spring Valley is now out, but it caused a scare amid this week’s red flag warning. That means high temperatures, strong winds and low humidity– ideal conditions for wildfires. As NBC 7’s Sherene Tagharobi explains, it appears this fire started in a homeless encampment.
Fire crews responded to a brush fire in a canyon behind some homes in Spring Valley early Monday.
The fire sparked around 3:30 a.m. in a riverbed near a condo complex along State Route 125 at Elkelton Boulevard and Quarry Road.
Crews quickly jumped on the fire that was in steep terrain and thick vegetation, holding the damage to about a quarter of an acre.
As of 8 a.m., the fire was surrounded by hose line. Officials said it would be several hours before the fire was under control.
A Cal Fire spokesperson said the fire was likely started in a homeless encampment.
“There’s at least four homeless encampments that stretch between the Spring Valley swap meet and where this current fire is,“ said Malcom Gettmann with the Spring Canyon Homeowners’ Association.
“We’ve been after the county and law enforcement for at least the last five years to do something about this because we’re fearful this will happen again and again,” Gettmann said.
Local
Firefighters told NBC 7 they were looking at one of those camps as the possible location for the start of the fire but there was no cause released.
San Diego County was under a red flag warning Monday through Wednesday with periods of strong and gusty Santa Ana winds.
NBC 7's Meteorologist Jodi Kodesh called for Monday to be windy at times for our local mountains and coastal foothills with northeast winds from 15-25 mph and gusts to 45 mph possible.
