Eureka Fire: Blaze spreading across Joshua Tree National Park is 0% contained

Firefighters battling a stubborn brush fire in Joshua Tree National Park on Friday, May 30 urgently requested major air support, including a very large air tanker, a large air tanker and a type three air tanker, according to radio traffic captured by WatchDuty.

The blaze, named the Eureka Fire, surged to nearly 164 acres by 1:40 p.m., per CalFire. It was reported as a 20-acre brush fire at 11:57 a.m. in the Lower Covington Flats area of the park, in flammable, scrubby brush in Lower Covington Flat Road, between Nolina Cove Road in the town of Joshua Tree and Carmelita Place and Carmelita Circle in Yucca Valley.

A smoke plume was visible for miles, including from Onyx Peak cameras that captured a thick pall of gray smoke. A helicopter and two smaller air tankers appeared to be headed to the area by 2:15 pm on a CalFire map.

A park spokeswoman said, along with their firefighting personnel, that additional resources from BLM and San Bernardino County had been requested to try to contain the active blaze. The weather in the area is cool, with a high temperature near 84, but south winds were blowing at about 10 mph, with gusts as high as 20 mph. The fire is at 0% containment. The cause is under investigation.

This is a developing story.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Fire in Joshua Tree: Eureka Fire spreads in Joshua Tree National Park