Evacuations lifted, California fire now 45 per cent contained

BANNING, Calif. – Crews increased containment of a wildfire that sent about 700 people scrambling from their homes east of Los Angeles.

Officials said the blaze in Riverside County grew to nearly 2 square miles and is 45 per cent contained Wednesday.

All evacuation orders, most of which were from a mobile home park, were cancelled late Tuesday.

The fire broke out Tuesday afternoon and moved quickly through tinder-dry brush.

Two people were taken to hospitals with minor injuries.

An assisted living centre with 10 seniors had to be evacuated as flames came within about 300 yards.

Officials did not give a cause, but they said they were seeking witnesses to the activities of children near the gate to a nature park where the fire started.

To the southwest, crews in Orange County were making water drops over a 20-acre brush fire that broke out just before dawn Tuesday in the Cleveland National Forest. No structures were threatened.