A brush fire ignited in the Jurupa Valley on Tuesday, prompting evacuation orders and injuring four people as fire crews continued to battle a slew of blazes burning amid dry and warm conditions in the Southland.
The Bain fire was reported at 11:22 a.m. near the Santa Ana River bottom in the community of Mira Linda. Fanned by gusty winds, it quickly pushed up the nearby hills, scorching some 900 acres by 5 p.m., according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
Four civilians were transported to the hospital for treatment, three from smoke inhalation injuries and one from a trauma injury, according to Capt. John Clingingsmith Jr., a spokesperson for the Cal Fire Riverside Unit. Evacuation orders have been issued in surrounding residential areas, and an evacuation center is open at the La Sierra Senior Center, at 5215 La Sierra Ave.
At one point in the afternoon, firefighting aircraft were briefly grounded as three civilian drones were spotted flying in the airspace. It is illegal to fly drones in a fire zone as they have the potential to collide with and damage firefighting planes. During the Palisades fire in January 2025, a drone punctured a hole in the the wing of a Super Scooper plane.
“When we see one drone in the area, let alone three or more, it takes a portion of time to verify that that airspace is clear and it’s safe for our aircraft to start flying again,” said Clingingsmith.
On Tuesday, it took around 15 minutes to get planes back in the air, but Clingingsmith noted that even small pauses can have serious consequences.
“At the height of things moving with the wind, even 10 minutes can really alter the course of the fire,” he said.
One hundred firefighter personnel were assigned to the Bain fire. By 4:30 p.m., they were making strong progress on halting forward progression on the north, south, and most of the western portion of the fire, while the eastern flank continued to have the most activity and potential for growth, Clingingsmith said.
A second brush fire was reported in the Juniper Springs area of Riverside County at 12:20 p.m. Tuesday, according to Cal Fire Riverside. That blaze, dubbed the Verona fire, grew to 175 acres by 3:30 p.m., prompting evacuation orders in the community of Homeland. An evacuation center was opened at West Valley High School, at 3401 Mustang Way.
One firefighter and one civilian sustained minor injuries in the Verona fire and were transported to a hospital for treatment.
Forward spread on the blaze was halted shortly before 4 p.m. as firefighters worked to establish and strengthen containment lines and some evacuation orders were downgraded to warnings, according to Cal Fire Riverside.
Meanwhile, in Los Angeles County, crews continued to combat the 1,698-acre Sandy fire, which ignited amid gusty winds in Simi Valley on Monday and burned four structures. That conflagration was 5% contained by Tuesday afternoon as weakening winds helped crews get a handle on the incident, according to Cal Fire.
The Santa Rosa fire also continued to burn on the eponymous island located within the Channel Islands National Park. That blaze was sparked by the flare of a stranded sailor on Friday and had scorched nearly 17,000 acres by Tuesday afternoon.
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