ANGELES NATIONAL FOREST – Officials Thursday announced 100 percent containment of the 2,168-acre Morris Fire, burning in the forest north of Azusa and Glendora.
Full containment was reached about 6 a.m., incident spokesman Doug Nakama said.
“Right now, it’s smouldering areas,” he said. “There’s still a few items of unburned material, but the perimeter is solid.”
Six fire engines and three hand crews, totaling 213 personnel, are patrolling the smouldering remnants of the Morris Fire, he said.
“We’ll keep an eye on it for a few days until we can call it controlled,” he added.
Incident spokesman Jim Wilkins said the fire would not be declared “controlled” until “you would feel comfortable walking around on it in your socks.”
The fire caused six injuries to firefighters, which included a wrist injury, a knee injury, a case of heat exhaustion and three bee stings, Nakama said. No structures were damaged or destroyed.
The fire displaced the 58 residents of Camp Williams off of East Fork Road for five days, authorities said.
Much of the work remaining at the Morris Fire scene Thursday involved mitigating the environmental damage done by the firefighting effort.
The cause of the fire, which ignited Aug. 25 near the Morris reservoir, remained under investigation Thursday.
Authorities have said it appeared to be human-caused, though they don’t know whether it was accidental or arson.
Most of the 1,600 firefighters who were assigned to the Morris Fire at its height are now available to assist with other wildfires, Nakama said.
“A lot of them, we shipped out to the Station Fire,” he said.
The temporary fire camp at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area has been kept in place to give firefighters battling the Station Fire another base of operations, Nakama said.
Nakama said firefighters handled the Morris Fire skillfully and professionally.
“They were very aggressive,” he said. “They did a great job putting the fire out.”
PHOTO: The Station Fire, as seen from the command post of the Morris Fire at the Santa Fe Dam Recreation Area in Irwindale on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2009.
Doug, it was great to read about you in the paper….We are sooo proud of you and your accomplishments…..I don’t know if you know that Mark is working for the U.S. Forestry Service….he is stationed with the Silverado Canyon Station…and Jef is attending Santa Ana College for firefighting and just completed the intro class and is taking the next 2 classes…..they both have their college degrees from Westmont College, but did not find any interest in their majors…..anyway, I know you are a busy guy, but if you had the time to visit with them that would be awesome….Just to wncourage them and shed some light on the actual future for them in the fire fighting career path….Mark has seen people being laid off and he was in line for the apprenticeship, but was passed up by people that have served in the military (rightly so)…..anyway, we’d love to see you and your family…..my mom and Sue would like to come also….let me know if and when we could come down and visit……I know it has been a long time since we’ve have seen you…..Oh, it was great that you stopped by to see Auntie Sada…..Hope to hear from you soon….
Thanks,
Leslie