Christmas Eve brush fire forces more than 7,000 Fallbrook residents to evacuate

A large brush fire that broke out in De Luz late Dec. 23 spread into Camp Pendleton and triggered mandatory evacuations in Fallbrook early Dec. 24 – an unwelcome Christmas Eve surprise for the thousands of Fallbrook residents who were forced to leave their homes. The fire's size had been expanded to more than 3,000 acres acres with 0% containment on Thursday morning, but authorities said at the time that firefighters had encircled the blaze and expected to control it. By Dec. 28, the fire was 98% contained at about 4,200 acres.

Homes along much of the northwestern corner of Fallbrook were placed under evacuation orders on Wednesday night and much of Thursday, as the blaze, dubbed the Creek Fire, extended into Camp Pendleton and threatened to affect populated areas should the winds shift, according to North County Fire Capt. John Choi.

Evacuation orders at first only affected homes on the edge of Fallbrook and De Luz but were expanded by about 2:30 a.m. to include areas north of the Fallbrook Airpark along South Mission Road, including part of downtown Fallbrook. Other parts of Fallbrook along South Mission Road were under an evacuation warning.

Cal Fire San Diego estimated about 7,000 Fallbrook residents were under evacuation orders and an evacuation center was set up at Fallbrook High School, 2400 S. Stage Coach Lane.

Those affected by the evacuation orders were allowed to return to their homes Thursday evening.

Housing on Camp Pendleton was also under evacuation orders – base officials said on Twitter that DeLuz Housing, Wounded Warrior Battalion, and Lake O'Neill Campground areas were all under mandatory evacuation. Those evacuation orders were also lifted on Thursday.

The fire first broke out around 11:30 p.m. Wednesday, when the North County Fire Protection District tweeted that crews were at the scene of a vegetation fire near De Luz Road west of Sandia Creek Drive. The blaze erupted amid a red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service for high winds and low humidity.

North County Fire initially estimated the blaze to be as large as 300 acres, but Cal Fire San Diego tweeted at about 11:50 p.m. that its units were also responding to the fire and were estimating its size at 50 acres. By about 2:30 a.m., North County Fire tweeted the fire had indeed expanded to 300 acres, and another update at 7 a.m. indicated the fire had expanded to more than 3,000 acres.

Early Thursday morning, the fire was burning along the eastern side of Camp Pendleton, North County Fire Capt. John Choi said, and changing winds could have caused the fire to immediately impact Fallbrook.

The firefighters caught up later that morning.

"We had a lull this morning," Choi said on Thursday. "We went from a critical rate of spread where we were dealing with 20-30 mile per hour winds - critical rate is the fastest you can have - but in that lull, the fire changed to a moderate rate of spread.""

Firefighters from North County, Camp Pendleton, and Cal Fire worked together to control the blaze.

No buildings were reported to have been damaged in the fire.

Jeff Pack and City News Service contributed to this report.