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April 12, 2013 (San Diego's East County) -- The cause of today's spot fires along Interstate 8 was accidental, says Heartland Fire spoksman Sonny Saghera. Heartland responded to reports of several small fires along westbound I-8 from West Main Street in El Cajon to Severin Drive in La Meas around 1 p.m. today.
Heartland Fire & Rescue units from La Mesa and El Cajon, assisted by engines from Cal Fire and Santee, were dispatched to contain the four individual fires approximately 100 yards apart from each other. A structure on Murray Drive in La Mesa was briefly threatened, but fire crews aggressively attacked the flames to keep them along the freeway’s shoulder.
A car’s malfunctioning catalytic convertercaused the fires. The car came to a stop on Westbound I-8 under the 125 freeway underpass.
The I-8 westbound freeway and Trolley Services were briefly shut down for approximately 30 minutes. The fire and freeway closure also caused traffic backups on surface streets in the area. Valerie Harrison told ECM it took 45 minutes to reach Rancho San Diego from Parkway Plaza; ECM videojournalist Paul Kruze also encountered long traffic delays in the Rancho San Diego area.
Fire crews had the fires completely mopped up within two hours.
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