The brush fire that ignited Wednesday afternoon and scorched roughly 3 square miles in the Murrieta and La Cresta area in Riverside County was 40% contained on Saturday afternoon, authorities said.
Crews managed to increase the containment from 25% overnight, when “fire activity was minimal,” according to an update from CalFire. The agency expected the blaze, dubbed the Tenaja Fire, to be fully contained by Tuesday.
Some 700 fire personnel continued to work on controlling the flames since they broke out around 4 p.m. on Wednesday and quickly spread.
As many as 2,000 homes were threatened at one point, forcing officials to issue mandatory evacuation orders to hundreds of residents. Evacuation orders and warnings were lifted Friday morning.
The fire damaged two homes and left three firefighters with injuries that were not life threatening, CalFire said. Authorities did not provide further details about the extent of the damages.
