Fires sweep through Orange County, forcing 100,000 to flee
SANTA ANA — Orange County remained on high alert Tuesday as a pair of wind-driven wildfires continued their race toward populated areas, forcing 100,000 residents to evacuate and choking much of the region with smoke.
The larger of the blazes, the Silverado Fire, broke out early Monday morning in the brush country around Santiago Canyon and Silverado Canyon roads. It had burned 12,535 acres by noon Tuesday. At least 90,000 residents were under evacuation orders, and the fire was 5% contained.
The cause of the blaze, which is burning on hilly terrain in state lands, is not clear. But in a report to the state Public Utilities Commission, Southern California Edison said it was investigating whether its electrical equipment might have caused the fire. The brief report said it appeared that a “lashing wire” may have struck a primary conductor and that an investigation was underway.
At least two firefighters working on hand crews were severely burned as they battled the flames, according to Orange County Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy.
The firefighters, ages 26 and 31, were both placed on ventilators after suffering second- and third-degree burns over half their bodies, Fennessy said.
“This is tough for me, tough for all my firefighters and certainly for the families of my two injured firefighters,” Fennessy said during a news conference outside the Orange County Global Medical Center, where the men were being treated.
“They’re gravely injured,” he said. “We’re doing all we can for them.”
There were no official updates on their conditions Tuesday morning, Capt. Thahn Nguyen of the fire authority said.
Nguyen said their injuries were “pretty severe,” and he could not say whether they were expected to make a full recovery.
Hours after the Silverado fire ignited, the Blue Ridge fire erupted in Santa Ana Canyon — a notorious wind tunnel said to have given the blustery Santa Anas their name.
The flames spread quickly as the fire pushed west toward Yorba Linda, threatening the town’s Hidden Hills community. By noon Tuesday, the blaze had engulfed 15,200 acres and was zero percent contained. At least 10,000 residents had been evacuated. Ten homes had been damaged and 2,500 were still threatened.
The two fires have spurred multiple evacuation orders and warnings.
“This is absolutely a large mutual aid fire, a lot of resources from all over the state,” Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Jason Fairchild said Tuesday, noting that more than 1,700 firefighters are battling the two blazes. “And we have additional resources coming in from farther away.”
Facing flames that could threaten multiple homes at once in the county’s suburban sprawl, firefighters have been relying on their engines’ 500-gallon tanks to beat back flames instead of connecting to hydrants so the crews aren’t “anchored down,” Fairchild said.
If the water supply were to become an issue, many of the engines are outfitted with pumps that would allow them to pull water from homeowners’ pools, he said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday said California had received a fire management assistance grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that will allow the state to receive 75% reimbursements for firefighting efforts related to the Silverado and Blue Ridge fires. The grant is provided through the president’s Disaster Relief Fund on cost-share basis.
“I want to thank FEMA and our partners at the federal level for their support,” he said.