Editor’s note: Based on information provided by the Long Beach Fire Department, an earlier version of this story said 50 acres had burned. Fire officials later revised that number.

Roughly 5 acres of Los Cerritos Wetlands burned Wednesday in what officials said was Long Beach’s worst brush fire in decades.

Fueled by record high temperatures and gusty winds, the blaze was sparked about 9:30 a.m. in the brush behind Shopkeeper Road, near the intersection of Second Street and Pacific Coast Highway.

“It came very fast,” Long Beach Deputy Fire Chief Rich Brandt said. “This is the biggest brush fire that I’ve seen personally in Long Beach in 20 years.”

Hot embers carried by the winds sparked fires in about a dozen palm trees along Pacific Coast Highway and briefly set fire to the roof of the SeaPort Marina Hotel across the street. Meanwhile, thick black smoke and ashes engulfed the nearby Marketplace Long Beach shopping center.

“I looked out the window, and it was all black smoke that would change colors with the sun. It was terrifying,” said Barbara McElrath, who owns a women’s clothing store in the Marketplace. “Our whole financial life is in that store.”

“This area (the Marketplace) is a big concern for us because these businesses all have wood roofs,” said Long Beach Fire Chief Mike DuRee.

Firefighters battled the blaze for more than an hour and were able to prevent the fire from spreading to nearby businesses in the shopping center. Firefighters said the blaze was in areas surrounded by mud and brush, making it difficult to reach. An Orange County Fire Department helicopter helped douse the fire.

The fire in a 45-acre area of the wetlands, where several active oil wells are located. DuRee said firefighters erected a barricade around the oil wells and turned off the area’s oil pumps.

By 11 a.m., the fire was contained, but firefighters remained on the scene into the late afternoon to monitor hot spots, DuRee said. One firefighter was transported to a hospital with heat exhaustion and was later released, officials said.

DuRee said it was the worst brush fire he’s seen in Long Beach. Long Beach Fire Department was aided by the Los Angeles and Orange County fire departments, he said.

“Right now there’s no major structure damage, and that’s huge,” he said.

The cause of the blaze was under investigation, but earlier in the day police arrested an arson suspect for a separate incident in the area.

SeaPort Marina Hotel evacuated

During the blaze, the nearby SeaPort Marina Hotel on the other side of Pacific Coast Highway was evacuated as the roof and some balconies briefly caught fire, DuRee said.

Matthew Middlesworth, an employee at SeaPort, said he walked outside and saw about a dozen palm trees blazing. The hotel immediately evacuated guests.

“We just wanted to get the guests out and make sure everyone was safe,” Middlesworth said. “It was very scary.”

At one point, a pile of mulch caught fire outside the hotel, and employees and hotel guests battled the fire with hoses as firefighters fought the brushfire.

Shawn Serrao, 36, the chief engineer at SeaPort, was on top of the building trying to put out a palm tree fire with a hose before firefighters got there.

“One of the palm trees caught on fire, and then the roof got on fire, so I went up there with the hose and wet it all down,” he said. “It’s more work for me if the place burns more. I was just doing what I thought was right.”

Preventative measures

As nearby trees smoldered, workers at the Mobil gas station at the corner of PCH and Second hosed down palms in case the fire spread.

Ramez Sairafe, manager of Mobil, said he and three other employees were working when they noticed embers on the palm trees across the street by the SeaPort Marina at about 10 a.m. He said at least 10 palm trees were alight along the middle portion of their trunks in about five-foot sections.

Sairafe said he and other employees started bringing out ladders and hosing down the few palm trees on their lot as a preventive measure with hoses from the station’s drive-through car wash. None of the trees on the lot caught fire, though.

“I thought any second they could start lighting up,” Sairafe said. “When there’s chaos everywhere and no one is prepared, sometimes we’re better off handling it on our own.”

Businesses in the Marketplace, such as Trader Joe’s, California Pizza Kitchen and Veggie Grill, were evacuated because of the flames, Sairafe said.

Second Street, which becomes Westminster Road going into Orange County, was blocked in both directions east of Pacific Coast Highway during the firefighting operation. PCH and Shopkeeper Road were also shut down, but all those streets had reopened by 4:30 p.m., according to LBFD spokesman Will Nash.

Arson arrest hours before

Hours before the blaze began, the Long Beach Police Department arrested a man officials said was attempting to ignite a pump at a gas station and a tree in the 6400 block of Pacific Coast Highway, right next to the wetlands.

William Pratt, 55, of Long Beach, was arrested on suspicion of arson at the corner of Marina Drive and Second Street at 3:10 a.m., police said.

It wasn’t clear whether there were any connection between these incidents and the brush fire.

Staff writers Brittan Woolsey and Kendra Ablaza and City News Service contributed to this report.

Contact the writer: kpuente@lbregister.com