California: Las Pulgas Fire on Camp Pendleton

Cocos and Las Pulgas Fires
Cocos and Las Pulgas Fires, showing in red the heat detected by a satellite at 4:03 a.m. PDT, May 16, 2014. The heat icons can be as much as a mile in error.

A new fire at Camp Pendleton in southern California grew rapidly after it started at 3:15 p.m. Thursday. A 5:09 a.m. update on Friday from the base said it had burned 8,000 acres and was 5 percent contained. Several areas on the base have been evacuated. Little other information about the fire is available, other than evacuation areas, since the Marines rarely allow reporters on the base when a fire is burning.

A total of 19 military helicopters are providing fire suppression support to firefighters in southern California, including eight Marine Corps CH-46 Sea Knight helicopters, seven CH-53 Sea Stallion helicopters and four UH-1Y Huey helicopters.