A fast-moving brush fire burning south Beaumont has grown to about 5,000 acres with 20 percent containment Tuesday, according to fire officials.
The blaze, dubbed the Manzanita Fire, started about 3:10 p.m. Monday on Lambs Canyon Road off State Route 79 following a single-car crash, the Riverside County Fire Department said in a news release.
A vehicle traveling southbound veered off the road and crashed into a ravine, sparking the fire, Cal Fire Capt. Lucas Spelman said. Two people got out of wrecked vehicle and got into another vehicle that was driving by and were taken to an area hospital, Spelman said.
The conditions of the two injured people were unknown.
The fire quickly burned out of control, having scorched 5,000 acres as of Tuesday morning.
“As the fire burns, it’s burning into areas where the brush is dead,” Spelman said.
The fire prompted voluntary evacuations for Highland Home Road, Death Valley Road, Longhorn Road and Shirleon Drive.
Evacuation warnings were issued for Highland Home Road, east to Highway 243, including the communities of Poppet Flats and Silent Valley.
Highway 79 southbound has re-opened, but the northbound side is limited to one lane, according to the Fire Department.
The number of firefighters available to battle the blaze is expected to increase Tuesday from 360 to about 1,300, Spelman said.
“We want to make sure that this fire is put out and we know that it takes personnel to do that,” Spelman said.
Containment on the fire was up to 20 percent as of 9 a.m., according to a Fire Department update.
The area burning is a mountainous and sparsely populated region about 75 miles east of downtown Los Angeles. Riverside County’s Lamb Canyon Landfill is in the area.
In Santa Clarita, firefighters battling the Placerita Fire have upped containment on the 760 acre blaze to 75 percent as of Monday night, according to a tweet from the Los Angeles County Fire Department.