Firefighters battled a small but stubborn vegetation fire Wednesday night in the riverbed west of Santa Maria, according to the Santa Barbara County Fire Department.

Crews were dispatched shortly after 6:15 p.m. to the blaze in the riverbed near Bonita School Road, fire Capt. Scott Safechuck said.

The fire was burning in thick vegetation, and blackened four acres before being contained, Safechuck said.

At 9:45 p.m., he added that firefighters would need another two to three hours of hard work to completely douse the fire.

Assisting on the incident were two  ngines from the Santa Maria Fire Department.

The cause of the blaze was under investigation.

— Noozhawk executive editor Tom Bolton can be reached at tbolton@noozhawk.com. Follow Noozhawk on Twitter: @noozhawk, @NoozhawkNews and @NoozhawkBiz. Connect with Noozhawk on Facebook.