AKIPRESS.COM - A Marine jet crashed into a residential area in a Southern California desert community Wednesday, hitting at least one house and setting at least two on fire, but no one was injured, authorities said.

Despite explosive crash into a row of tightly spaced houses, 1st Lt. Jose Negrete (neh-GREH-tay) said no people on the ground were hurt. The pilot had ejected safely and was taken to a hospital only for evaluation, Negrete said.

The Harrier AV-8B went down at 4:20 p.m. PDT in Imperial, a city of about 15,000 near the U.S.-Mexico border about 90 miles east of San Diego, the AP said.

The house that suffered the brunt of the damage had a missing roof but still had walls and windows intact.

Christopher Garcia, 11, was watching television two blocks away with his father and brother when he heard an explosion that "felt like an earthquake." He hurried outside to see a pilot parachuting into a field about 200 yards from the crash.

"A mushroom cloud of black and red smoke" rose above the house with the collapsed roof, he said. The garage of the house next door was on fire.

The plane was from Marine Corps Air Station Yuma in Arizona, said Cpl. Melissa Lee, a spokeswoman for Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. She had no details about what might have caused the accident.

This was the second crash in a month of a Harrier jet from the Yuma air base.