A brush fire Wednesday afternoon scorched about a half-acre filled with Tamarisk trees near Thermal, within the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian reservation, but no injuries were reported.
The non-injury blaze was reported about 1:20 p.m. on Martinez Road near Avenue 66, according to the Riverside County Fire Department, which was called to assist the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
County fire officials reported about 3 p.m. that crews had halted the fire’s forward rate of spread, but would remain on scene for several hours to build containment lines and mop up.
The fire ignited down the street from where a separate blaze torched about three acres in a palm grove in the 90000 block of Avenue 66, near state Route 86, early Wednesday morning.
No injuries were reported in that blaze, which was reported about 2:15 a.m. and contained by about 4 p.m., according to county fire officials.