Brush fire briefly stops traffic on southbound 215 Freeway

Looking west from Antelope Road just south of Craig Avenue, one can see the charred brush along the 215 Freeway. Menifee 24/7 photo: Doug Spoon

A brush fire on the west side of the 215 Freeway that briefly closed some southbound lanes between Newport Road and Scott Road on Sunday covered about one acre, fire officials said today.

A spokesperson for the Riverside County Fire Department said the No. 4 lane was closed while firefighters put out the fire, which was reported at 3:14 p.m. and was contained at 3:37. Several witnesses reported to Menifee 24/7 that all lanes were impacted, causing a back-up that resulted in some motorists driving the wrong way up the on-ramp at Newport Road to escape the traffic jam.

No details about a possible cause of the fire were released. On July 10, a brush fire along the northbound lanes of the freeway nearly spread to the parking lot of an apartment complex south of McCall Boulevard. Earlier that day, a small brush fire broke out on the same side of the freeway between Newport Road and Scott Road.

Five days later, a series of five spot fires were extinguished in the brush alongside the northbound lanes of the freeway near Clinton Keith Road. A Murrieta Fire Department spokesman said those fires were determined to be the result of a malfunctioning vehicle throwing sparks into the brush.

The southbound lanes of the freeway were completely shut down for several minutes on Sunday, not long after the fire was put out, for an unrelated incident. Crews had to remove a black BMW that had struck the center divider and was facing the wrong way