Firefighters battle the 1,000-acre McCain Fire in southeastern San Diego County

Firefighters continued to work Tuesday to extinguish a wildfire that has spread across nearly 1,000 acres of rural southeastern San Diego County, threatening isolated neighborhoods and cultural landmarks while forcing hundreds of people from their homes.

The fire broke out around 3:30 p.m. Monday when a car overturned and caught fire on Interstate 8 near McCain Valley Road at Boulevard, north of Jacumba Hot Springs, according to Cal Fire.

Mike Cornette, a fire captain with the state agency, said flames spread across rugged, rocky, brush-covered terrain on the north side of the highway, moving toward the nearby De Anza Springs resort.

While firefighters battled the blaze on the ground and in water tankers and helicopters, authorities closed the westbound lanes of the highway in the area and evacuated a total of 144 people from threatened homes, most of them at the Carrizo Gorge Road resort, Cornette said. A temporary shelter for evacuees was operating at the Golden Acorn Casino in Campo.

By late Tuesday morning, the fire was about 5% contained and had caused no structural damage, though it had spread to less than a mile from some homes.

The only known injury from the crash was sustained by the driver involved in the crash that started the fire. Medics took that person to a hospital for treatment of a moderate injury, Cornette said.

The San Diego County Fire Department has issued a smoke warning for parts of southeast San Diego.

Among the threats from the fire, Cal Fire said, were potential damage to historically and culturally significant Native American artifacts, including wall art. It was unclear Tuesday whether any of the artifacts had been damaged by the fire, Cornette said.

–Municipal Information Service