The fire likely was human-caused, authorities said Tuesday evening, CBS Los Angeles reported.
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The blaze erupted shortly before 12:30 p.m.in the unincorporated Cherry Valley area and has thrown up a line of 25-foot-high flames.
The fast-moving fire prompted the evacuations as it raced through 1.5 square miles of drought-dry hills near Banning, the Riverside County Fire Department said.
The fire, named for the park it started in, held Thursday morning at 1,470 acres and 60 percent containment, according to a Cal Fire/Riverside County Fire Department incident fact sheet.
More than 400 firefighters have been assigned to combat the blaze.
All remaining evacuations have been lifted, though the fire grew almost another 500 acres Wednesday. They’ve also been receiving help from Hemet-based air tankers and water-dropping helicopters. But authorities lifted evacuation orders for Banning Bench and the mobile home park by 8 p.m., according to CalFire. One firefighter suffered a non-life threatening injury, approximately 700 people were displaced, and 200 homes were evacuated, officials said.
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By late afternoon, winds were blowing the flames mostly away from populated areas “but we have them under evacuation because we have a ton of equipment coming in, and this is our access point to that fire”, Cal Fire spokeswoman Liz Brown said.
