A brush fire that broke out Friday just south of Interstate 10 in Beaumont burned 225 acres within a couple of hours and triggered evacuations on the southern edge of the city.
The blaze was reported about 3 p.m. along Highland Springs Avenue, near Breckenridge Avenue, according to the Riverside County Fire Department.
The agency said that multiple engine and hand crews from the county, Soboba Indian Reservation and other agencies were sent to the location and encountered flames moving at a “critical rate.”
Cal Fire air tankers and water-dropping helicopters were requested and diverted away from a slightly larger brusher north of Moreno Valley that was slowing late Friday afternoon.
The flames were on the outer rim of the subdivision between Highland Springs to the west and Sunningdale Street to the east, and an evacuation order for those residences was issued shortly after 4 p.m., according to the fire department.
The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.