A fire that erupted Thursday in the Santa Ana River bottom in Jurupa Valley scorched about 34 acres before it was stopped.
The non-injury “Beach Fire” was reported at 12:55 p.m. Thursday along the south banks of the dry channel, just off of Beach Street and Limonite Avenue, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.
The agency said that multiple engine and hand crews from the county, Riverside Fire Department, Corona Fire Department, Pomona Fire Department and other agencies were sent to the location and encountered flames moving at a slow rate to the northeast in heavy overgrowth.
Three Cal Fire air tankers and two water-dropping helicopters initiated runs on the brusher shortly before 2 p.m. giving firefighters time to push through the excess vegetation to reach the blaze.
Its forward rate of spread was halted at 4:20 p.m. Full containment was expected overnight.
No homes or other structures were threatened, and no roads were closed.
The river bottom is replete with transient encampments between Highgrove and Norco, and cooking, warming and debris fires are frequent year-round. The highest concentration of camps is between Jurupa Valley to the north and Riverside to the south.
County flood control and municipal regulations prohibit the encampments, but as soon as one is dismantled by authorities, others are erected elsewhere around the riverbed.