Fairview Fire now over 50% contained and could be fully surrounded Monday

The Fairview Fire surpassed 50% containment Monday after a humid night that aided firefighting efforts, the Riverside County Fire Department said.

As of 3:40 p.m., the fire stood at 53% containment and 28,307 acres. That was up from 49% containment Sunday night, while the acreage had not changed.

The progress came after a day of rain that dropped over a third of an inch of rain on Temecula and about 0.27 inches on Thomas Mountain in the San Jacinto Mountains, where the fire has been burning since Monday, Sept. 5.

Although the rain ended after sunset Sunday, humidity remained high. For the past several days, fire officials had said it was their goal to get the fire fully contained by the end of Monday.

Going into the day, conditions were expected to help, with isolated showers and a high of around 86 degrees forecast for Hemet. However, winds of 5 to 10 mph and gusts of up to 20 mph were also predicted.

As firefighters got more of the fire under control, they continued to lift more evacuation orders and warnings Sunday.

As of Monday, the areas under evacuation order were now limited mostly to the burn area itself, including a swath of the mountains generally located east of Hemet and Sage, north of Cahuilla Road, west of NF-5S15 and south of Stetson Avenue.

Several areas to the north, west and south of the evacuation order area remain under evacuation warning, although both the order and warning areas are much smaller than they were heading into the weekend. An interactive evacuation area map can be found at https://arcg.is/SHiPW1.

Despite the cooler weather and weekend rain, some areas of the fire were still quite hot Sunday, so helicopters flew over the fire for about two hours and dropped 40,000 gallons of water, a fire official said.

There was flooding and mud in some of the areas where rain was heaviest, such as Gibble Flats areas and in Bautista and Avery Canyons. Some residents chose to evacuate, and one home was damaged.

Stephen Volmer, a fire behavioralist, said warmer and windier weather Tuesday presents a risk that the fire could spread again.

As of Monday, 21 structures were believed to have been destroyed in the fire while four more were damaged. Fourteen more "minor structures" were destroyed while two were damaged. And 1,124 structures were still considered threatened.

Officials have not said more about the cause of the fire since saying it is under investigation. In a document filed with the California Public Utilities Commission, Southern California Edison reported “circuit activity” in the area close to the time the fire erupted.

Two people died Monday, Sept. 5, trying to escape the fire, while a third was seriously injured but is expected to survive. The two people who died have not been identified by the Riverside County Coroner.

Paul Albani-Burgio covers breaking news and the City of Palm Springs. Follow him on Twitter at @albaniburgiop and via email at paul.albani-burgio@desertsun.com.

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: Fairview Fire could be fully contained Monday thanks to humid weather