Embers touch off fires along SoCal freeway

SAN BERNARDINO, Calif., Oct. 13 (UPI) -- Blowing embers from a small fire on a highway median burned down two commercial buildings in San Bernardino, Calif., firefighters said Monday night.

A self-storage facility and a plastics factory wet up in flames simultaneously as a series of at least four fires broke out along a 14-block stretch of Highway 215.

The flying embers got into a couple of commercial buildings," San Bernardino City Fire spokesman Steve Tracy told KCAL-TV in Los Angeles.

Tracy said some 260 firefighters were in the area as the structures continued to burn, fanned by blustery Santa Ana winds. There was a significant danger of other structures and vegetation catching fire.

In northern San Diego County, a wildfire on the Camp Pendleton Marine Corps base forced the evacuation of a base housing area as well as some residences in neighboring Oceanside.

The San Diego Union-Tribune said the fire was the second sizable blaze on the base in a week and was being attacked by air tankers, including heavy duty Super Scooper planes on loan from Canada.