Firefighters were spending a third day Friday battling a brush fire that injured four of them and has scorched about 155 acres in the Bell Ridge area of the Cleveland National Forest and is 20 percent contained.
More than 280 firefighters have been fighting the blaze. On Wednesday, the U.S. Forest Service deployed its smokejumpers — firefighters trained to parachute into hard-to-reach areas of a fire, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Larry Kurtz.
Four firefighters suffered minor injuries fighting the fire, which broke out for unknown reasons about 4 a.m. Wednesday in the general area of Holy Jim Canyon, several miles east of Rancho Santa Margarita, Kurtz said.
Some residents of Holy Jim Canyon voluntarily evacuated, but a mandatory evacuation was not ordered, Kurtz said.
Seven air tankers and 11 helicopters have been deployed in the firefighting effort, Kurtz said.
—City News Service