BANNING, California — A Southern California forest fire continues to grow and has now burned an outbuilding in a remote and rugged area east of Los Angeles.
The U.S. Forest Service says the blaze in the San Bernardino National Forest has charred more than five square miles of brush and dead trees. It's also destroyed a communications center outbuilding.
However, the fire is 40 percent contained Thursday and no homes are threatened.
The blaze began Sunday on the Morongo Indian Reservation near Banning and spread into the steep San Gorgonio Wilderness.
Nearly 1,500 firefighters and about two dozen aircraft are fighting the blaze.
