A brush fire that scorched 760 acres in Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, California, and the surrounding areas has been nearly completely contained, reports the Patch.
The Cristianitos fire, which started late Wednesday afternoon, was 95 percent contained as of Friday morning, Camp Pendleton officials told Patch. Officials are still being careful to make sure the fire is entirely eradicated before moving on.
"Firefighters are going to be out there today mopping up the fire," Capt. Larry Kurtz of Orange County Fire Authority told Patch on Friday. "Right now, they're going around making sure there are no embers or hot spots. We can't afford to let just one ember get past us or we're back to square one again."
While nobody was forced to evacuate, the blaze came within a quarter mile of homes in San Clemente, reported the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Camp Pendleton and its surrounding areas have been plagued with wildfires for the past decade. In 2007, a series of vicious wildfires killed 10 people, destroyed 1,600 homes and 369,000 acres of land, according to Patch. Seven years later, the base was ravaged again when three separate fires burned through nearly a fifth of the base, according to NBC San Diego.
Firefighters in the Camp Pendleton area began training in May for the summer wildfire season. Experts are predicting a severe wildfire season this year because above-average rain in recent months allowed more plants to grow – giving more fuel for potential wildfires to devour
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according to Patch.
Authorities are still investigating what caused the fire.
