Canyon Blaze South of Palm Desert 15 Percent Contained

A wildfire in a Palm Desert-area canyon was 15 percent contained and holding at three or four acres today, a U.S. Forest Service spokesman said.

A Forest Service employee Tuesday reported the fire about two miles west of Highway 74 in the Cat Creek drainage area in the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, officials said.

Crews from the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service and Riverside County Fire Department were sent to the scene. Four crews were hiking to the fire today, Forest Service spokesman Lee Beyer said.

The fire was burning at the bottom of a canyon, more than a mile from any buildings, Beyer said.

According to Beyer, one helicopter crew would make water drops and another bird would airlift firefighters to the blaze.

There was no estimate on full containment.

"We're going to try to work it as hard as we can today and hopefully have it contained,'' he said. "... It's along a canyon so it takes long time to get around it.''

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