{"id":251249,"date":"2026-04-04T06:50:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-04T06:50:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251249\/"},"modified":"2026-04-04T06:50:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-04T06:50:16","slug":"southern-california-springs-fire-fast-growing-in-windy-conditions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/251249\/","title":{"rendered":"Southern California Springs Fire fast growing in windy conditions"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Crews battled a <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2026\/04\/03\/us-news\/springs-crown-fires-in-moreno-valley-and-acton-prompt-evacuation-orders\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">smoky and fast-growing wildfire Friday<\/a> in windy Southern California that forced some residents to evacuate and a community college to temporarily close its doors.<\/p>\n<p>The Springs Fire broke out around 11 a.m. Friday and by the evening had grown to about 6.5 square miles.<\/p>\n<p>The cause of the fire east of Moreno Valley in Riverside County is under investigation. It was not immediately known how many households were under evacuation warnings or orders.<\/p>\n<p>Flames and smoke cover a hillside as crews battle the fast-growing Springs Fire in Moreno Valley, Calif., on April 3, 2026. AP<\/p>\n<p>With hundreds of people battling the blaze \u2014 using helicopters, engines and water tenders \u2014 crews started to contain the blaze by Friday night.<\/p>\n<p>The fire was burning in a populated \u2014 but not densely so \u2014 unincorporated part of Riverside County in a recreational area near the city of Moreno Valley, which has a population of roughly 200,000.<\/p>\n<p>The city is 10 miles southeast of Riverside and 64 miles east of Los Angeles.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s windy out there,\u201d said Maggie Cline De La Rosa, a public information officer for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection in Riverside County.<\/p>\n<p>A Cal Fire tanker drops fire retardant while battling the Springs Fire. AP<\/p>\n<p>Alex Izaguirre, a spokesperson for the Cal Fire Riverside County, said the wind is \u201cspreading the smoke,\u201d prompting concerned calls from residents in neighboring cities who can see and smell it.<\/p>\n<p>Moreno Valley College\u2019s main campus was shuttered Friday and Saturday due to the fire impacting the air quality.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAll students, faculty, and staff are being directed to leave campus immediately,\u201d the school said in a post on Instagram.<\/p>\n<p>Smoke blocks the sun as the Springs Fire continues to grow in Southern California on April 3, 2026.  AP<\/p>\n<p>California US Rep. Raul Ruiz said in a social media post that he was closely monitoring the blaze.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you are under an evacuation order, please leave immediately,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The National Weather Service issued a wind advisory for San Bernardino and Riverside County valleys through Saturday afternoon, with gusts of up to 50 mph expected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTree limbs could be blown down and a few power outages may result,\u201d the advisory read.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Crews battled a smoky and fast-growing wildfire Friday in windy Southern California that forced some residents to evacuate&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251250,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[7,9,8,3936,175,47,4182,3586,535],"class_list":{"0":"post-251249","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-california","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-california-headlines","10":"tag-california-news","11":"tag-california-wildfires","12":"tag-fires","13":"tag-los-angeles","14":"tag-metro","15":"tag-us-news","16":"tag-wildfires"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251249","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251250"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}