UPDATE: 50 Acre Blaze on the Bench North of Banning

Update 12:02 p.m.   CalFIRE says the 50 acre Bluff Fire has been contained.  No structures were threnatened, and there are no reports of injuries to firefighers or civilians.   

CalFIRE has taken command of the firefighting efforts as the fire is no longer a threat to San Bernardino National Forest lands.  

Update 10:20 a.m.  Forest Service spokesman John Miller says firefighters "believe they are getting a handle on the fire" on the Bluff Fire, north of Banning.

The USFS is in a command role beacuse of the threat to forest lands, but no U.S. Forest land has been burned.

Update 9:45 a.m.  Air units are now involved in the fight against the fire, according to the U.S. Forest Service.

An unspecified number of air tankers and a helicopter based in Hemet are now fighting the recently named Bluff fire. 

Update 9:24 a.m. The Forest Service and Cal Fire were under unified command in an effort to put out a fire Monday morning on the Bench north of Banning, a spokesman for the San Bernardino National Forest said.

"Its not on the forest yet," John Miller of the Forest Service said in an email. "However we are in unified command with calfire riverside since it is a threat to the national forest."

The fire was burning near Bluff and Doriana, a Forest Service dispatcher said.

Posted 9:04 a.m. A fire broke out Monday morning on the Bench north of Banning and scorched an estimated 35 acres, according to the Forest Service.

The fire was reported at 7:56 a.m. Monday near Bluff Street on the Bench, a U.S. Forest Service dispatcher said before 9 a.m. Sept. 17.

Follow Banning-Beaumont Patch on Twitter and Facebook, and sign up for the free daily newsletter here.