Firefighters contain destructive fire on landmark wooden pier on the Southern California coast

OCEANSIDE, Calif. (AP) — A stubborn fire at the end of a landmark wooden pier on the Southern California coast was contained early Friday, authorities said.

The fire erupted at 3 p.m. Thursday on the seaward end of the pier in the city of Oceanside, north of San Diego.

Firefighters pulled hoses down the 1,954-foot (596-meter) pier and also battled the flames with water cannons aboard boats and helicopter water drops.

A vacant restaurant and a small food service structure were heavily damaged, but no further loss of the pier itself was expected, a city statement said.

The cause of the fire was under investigation, the city said.

The current pier opened in 1987. Its predecessors were destroyed by raging surf in 1890 and 1902, according to Visit Oceanside, the city’s marketing organization.

The fire is the latest trouble for a California beach city’s signature pier. Landmark piers up and down the coast are facing costly repairs or replacement because of damage from storms in recent years.