San Gabriel Complex Fire: Containment Remains at 96 Percent

Duarte, CA — The San Gabriel Complex Fire containment remains steady at 96 percent, a Angeles National Forest spokesman said.

The fire has burned more than 5,300 acres since it started on June 20. The San Gabriel Complex Fire consists of two fires, the Fish Fire and the Reservoir Fire, that, though they have not merged, retains the complex name convention because they are close together.

The Reservoir Fire charred 1,146 acres and the Fish Fire burned 4,253 acres. More than 300 firefighting personnel are still fighting the fire doing mainly patrol and mop up.

With the fire nearly out, authorities were looking ahead to salvaging and protecting the area in dispatching a Burned Area Emergency Response team to identify imminent post-wildfire threats, forest officials said. Concerns following the 10-day blaze include the loss of vegetation; soil exposed to erosion risks; and hazards stemming from the runoff of water used to battle the blaze including flooding, an increase of sediment and damage to critical natural resources, forest officials said.

Crews are continuing to install water bars, which are water- or erosion-control ditches that channel water away from the burned area to help prevent erosion.

The Reservoir Fire broke out shortly after 11 a.m. June 20 off Highway 39 near the Morris Reservoir dam north of Azusa, according to Sherry Rollman of the Forest Service. It was sparked by a vehicle running off Highway 39 near the reservoir, California Highway Patrol Officer Alex Rubio said. One person died in that crash.

About 90 minutes after the Reservoir Fire began, a second blaze was reported near Opal Canyon and Brookridge roads near the Duarte/Azusa border, about four miles southwest of the Reservoir Fire. That blaze, dubbed the Fish Fire, quickly roared into the foothills.

— City News Service contributed to this report.