SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Three fires sparked in San Diego Saturday, keeping firefighters busy and warning neighbors to be proactive before a more serious fire ignites.
Just before 9:30 a.m. a fire started under the I-15 northbound overpass at the 94. Firefighters snuffed it out in about 20 minutes. There were no injuries.
At 2:10 p.m., in a gated Bird Rock community, a fire flared up in the canyon behind homes. Firefighters battled dry brush, heat and steep terrain as they jogged through a narrow passageway and into neighbors' backyards to get hoses to the blaze.
Only an acre burned, and no homes were evacuated. Neighbors were frustrated to have another emergency a day after another fire that burned in the same area, blackening a half acre.
"I don't know what happened or why it came back, why you know the fires came back. My son said, 'I'm afraid about what happens if it comes back in the night?'" Neighbor Luis Meza said.
Neighbors said they've lived in the area for decades and never seen a fire in the canyon. They also said the canyon is a known homeless encampment.
Next to I-8 in Lakeside a fire sparked at 4:27 p.m. on the shoulder and grew up the hillside. Firefighters extinguished the blaze around 5:30 p.m., limiting the damage to three acres. No structures were threatened and no injuries were reported.
Neighbors like Suzanne Perez saw the Bird Rock fire as a wake-up call, "their house is right at the top of the canyon just like this so we can imagine the same thing could happen there, so it's pretty scary," Her young neighbor chimed in, "yeah I don't want that to happen by our house." Perez continued, "so we might go home and water down the hill a little now."
Here's what Readyforwildfire.org suggests as defensible space for your home:
