A wildfire in the hills west of Murrieta in Riverside County grew to more than 100 acres and forced evacuations Tuesday before firefighters began containing the blaze.
The volcano fire briefly forced evacuation orders in La Cresta before they were reduced to warnings around 7:45 p.m.
“Crews will continue to work throughout the night with the assistance of night-flying helicopters,” the Riverside County Fire Department posted on X. “There are no reports of injuries to firefighters or civilians.”
As of Wednesday morning, the fire was listed at 138 acres and 25% contained on the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection website. The cause is under investigation. It started around 2:50 pm near Via Volcano and Tenaja Road in unincorporated Murrieta.
An evacuation order remained in effect for land on and at least one property fronting The Trails Circle. The area also burned in 2019 during the Tenaja Fire, which grew to 1,000 acres.
The fire was one of three that broke out Tuesday amid unusually warm temperatures in central and southern California. There were also two fires in San Luis Obispo County: the 10-acre Twitchel Fire and a 543-acre solar ranch fire, which was 80% contained at the end of the day.
Temperatures could reach 99 degrees and humidity would drop to the single digits inland around the Bear Fire, while temperatures would cool and humidity rise closer to the coast, according to the National Weather Service.
In Southern California, Wednesday is expected to be the warmest day, with highs in the 80s along the coasts, 90 to 102 in the valleys and 105 to 107 in the Antelope Valley, according to the weather service.
Coasts could cool a couple of degrees on Thursday due to a stronger, earlier sea breeze, but valleys are expected to see little change, and mountains and the far interior could warm a degree or two, forecasters said.
