A wildfire that erupted Friday on a hillside adjacent to a park just northeast of Murrieta scorched 72 acres before it was stopped.
The non-injury “Alamos Fire” was reported at 3:22 p.m. Friday on the north side of Los Alamos Hills Sports Park, near the intersection of Los Alamos Road and Ruth Ellen Way, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.
The agency said that multiple engine and hand crews from the county, Murrieta Fire & Rescue, Cal Fire-San Bernardino County and surrounding agencies were sent to the location and encountered flames burning over the hills fronting the park.
The flames were initially moving at a “dangerous rate of spread” toward Whitewood Road and the backside of Vista Murrieta High School, which was not in session Friday. Sheriff’s deputies and Murrieta police officers shut down Whitewood around 4 p.m. for public safety.
The fire’s forward rate of spread was stopped just after 5 p.m.
At the height of the brusher, five Cal Fire air tankers and two water-dropping helicopters were making runs on it. However, by 5:15 p.m., all aircraft had cleared the area, with the fire completely stalled between Los Alamos and Whitewood, south of Clinton Keith Road, with little room to expand, according to reports from the scene.
The only reported damage was to electrical transmission lines near the high school.
The cause of the fire was under investigation.