Firefighters reached 80% containment as they continued to battle a 39-acre vegetation fire in Mecca Thursday.
Crews responded around 9:10 a.m. Wednesday near Lincoln Street and 64th Avenue to a report of a vegetation fire, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.
“Firefighters are currently on scene of a vegetation fire burning thick in vegetation,” fire officials said in a statement at 9:53 a.m. that day. “The fire is currently 3 acres and burning with a moderate rate of speed.”
The fire grew to 15 acres with no containment by 11:20 a.m., according to fire officials. The fire caused a brief outage in the area that affected approximately 200 structures.
The Imperial Irrigation District alerted the public at 10:48 a.m. that the outage had affected 198 of its customers from Lincoln Street to Fourth Avenue. Power was restored to all but one customer within an hour.
Power lines were de-energized in the area, and the Riverside County Emergency Management Department worked to establish a cooling center for residents affected by the outage, fire officials said.
By 7:30 p.m. Wednesday the fire grew to 39 acres, and by Thursday morning, firefighters were able to get the flames 80% contained.
Though no evacuation orders were issued, Mecca Elementary School — located a little less than a mile from the fire — voluntarily evacuated Wednesday morning due to the smoke.