{"id":401795,"date":"2026-07-17T04:22:10","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T04:22:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/401795\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T04:22:10","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T04:22:10","slug":"forward-progress-stopped-most-evacuation-orders-lifted-on-thorn-fire-in-east-county-san-diego-union-tribune","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/401795\/","title":{"rendered":"Forward progress stopped, most evacuation orders lifted on Thorn fire in East County \u2013 San Diego Union-Tribune"},"content":{"rendered":"

Following an all-night battle, firefighters announced forward progress had been stopped and most evacuation orders were lifted Thursday on the Thorn fire that began a day earlier near Boulevard.<\/p>\n

The spread was halted at around 1,234 acres. Crews reported having 45% containment.<\/p>\n

\"Boulevard,Crews battle the Thorn fire off of Ribbonwood Road north of Interstate 8 in Boulevard Wednesday afternoon. (Luke Johnson \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

The fire started about\u00a03:45 p.m. Wednesday near Buckthorn Trail and Old Highway 80, crossing Interstate 8 and burning east. Its forward progress was halted just west of McCain Valley Road, officials said.<\/p>\n

For several hours Wednesday, the fire forced the closure of I-8 between Crestwood and Ribbonwood roads, with traffic being diverted to state Route 94.<\/p>\n

Around 4 p.m. Thursday, the California Highway Patrol reported on X that only the right lane of I-8 in the area remained closed, and the Crestwood Road on-ramp to eastbound I-8 and Ribbonwood Road on-ramp to westbound I-8 were open.<\/p>\n

About 600 firefighters were on the fire Thursday, with crews dousing hot spots and building containment lines. Firefighters were assisted by eight aircraft, including three air tankers and four helicopters, said Cal Fire Capt. Oscar Sotelo.<\/p>\n

Firefighters made good progress overnight Wednesday, as winds diminished and temperatures cooled. Things appeared tricky for firefighters momentarily Thursday. Sotelo said strong winds and a thunderstorm cell created a potential problem. But crews were still able to gain the upper hand, and the thunderstorm passed.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat thunder storms do is create a kind of safety issue with firefighters on the ground if there\u2019s a potential for lightning,\u201d Sotelo said. \u201cThere were some lightning strikes nearby, but everybody is OK.\u201d<\/p>\n

The fire damaged at least one structure, but it was not destroyed, Sotelo said. It was not immediately clear what type of structure it was. Inspection teams were scouting the area Thursday, Sotelo said.<\/p>\n

\"Boulevard,Crews battle the Thorn fire off of Ribbonwood Road north of Interstate 8 in Boulevard Wednesday afternoon. (Luke Johnson \/ The San Diego Union-Tribune)<\/p>\n

Sotelo said fire officials expect the fire to burn for several more days. \u201cWe will keep plugging away on the containment line,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Evacuation orders remained in place Thursday evening for areas closest to the fire\u2019s ignition point and in the areas near its perimeter, particularly around Ribbonwood Road, according to\u00a0Genasys Protect\u2019s online mapping<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Sotelo said residents who are still evacuated need to stay away until the danger passes, and SDG&E crews determine the fire hasn\u2019t affected power lines.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest thing is just safety,\u201d he said. \u201cWe hate to tell them they can go back in while there are still hot spots.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Following an all-night battle, firefighters announced forward progress had been stopped and most evacuation orders were lifted Thursday…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":401796,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[7,138,3053,181,23,100,74,84,76,75,1696],"class_list":["post-401795","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-diego","tag-california","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-east-county","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-san-diego","tag-san-diego-county","tag-san-diego-headlines","tag-san-diego-news","tag-top-stories-sdut"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401795","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=401795"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/401795\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/401796"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=401795"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=401795"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=401795"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}