INLAND EMPIRE – Winter’s strongest Santa Ana winds fanned a pair of wildfires in Riverside County Thursday.

The largest should be contained Friday night in the Cleveland National Forest west of Lake Elsinore. It is burning through Morrell Canyon about 3-miles east of the Orange County line. A campground was evacuated, but the Forest Service says no buildings were damaged.

In Riverside, Fire Department spokesman John Martinez says they battled winds for 4-hours to round up a 10-acre fire in the Santa Ana Riverbottom.

“We had some gusts up to 26 miles an hour. The dense vegetation made the fire hard to get to.”

A spark from machinery being used to remove a bamboo-like weed started that fire. (INT)

Story Date: January 17, 2010