AZUSA (CNS) - A brush fire that burned 166 acres in East Fork above Azusa was 91 percent contained today.
The so-called Fork Fire left one firefighter with a minor injury and caused campers and visitors using the popular swimming holes in San Gabriel Canyon to be evacuated after it broke out around noon Sunday.
The fire shut down Highway 39 in San Gabriel Canyon about two miles north of Sierra Madre Boulevard.
Park visitors north of the fire were stuck, their only normal exit from the park cut off to the south, U.S. Forest Service spokesman Nathan Judy said. They were escorted out via a closed section of Route 39 to the Angeles Crest Highway, across a treacherous roadway subject to rockfalls usually closed to the public.
One firefighter suffered a minor injury when he was hit in a leg by a falling rock, Judy said. The firefighter was taken to a hospital for treatment.
Los Angeles County rushed camp crews and other brush teams to the canyon, a heavily wooded area near where several other large wildfires have broken out in years past.
No structures were threatened, Judy said.
About 115 people were battling the brush fire.
“Crews will continue completing and improving containment lines, patrol and mop-up,” according to the U.S. Forest Service. “Aircraft will be available to support ground crews if needed.”
Crews with the U.S. Forest Service were assisted by Cal Fire, the Orange County Fire Authority, Ventura County Fire Department and other fire departments along with the California Highway Patrol and Southern California Edison.
Tanker 911, a jumbo DC-10 jet converted into a fire-suppression tanker, was flown to Southern California from its base near Sacramento to assist in the battle, Judy said.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation.