Norte Fire Burns Six Homes and Forces 16,000 to Evacuate in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano
The wind driven fire grew to 570 acres by Friday evening with no containment, and the same Santa Ana heat and fire weather hanging over south Orange County covers the Laguna Beach coast through Saturday night.
A wind driven wildfire that started just after 11:30 a.m. on Friday near Portico Del Norte and Eminencia Del Norte in San Clemente burned 570 acres by Friday evening, destroyed or damaged six homes in San Juan Capistrano and forced about 16,000 people to evacuate, as Santa Ana winds pushed flames from the coast into hillside neighborhoods south of Laguna Beach.
The Norte Fire was at zero containment on Friday evening, the Orange County Fire Authority said, and evacuation orders remained in place overnight. "We still have crews in place with evacuations remaining throughout the night," Deputy Incident Commander Battalion Chief Mike Yeun said in a video update. Fire Chief TJ McGovern said the crews' objective was "keeping the fire within its current footprint." Officials said progress had been made against the fire by the evening. Authority spokesperson Steve Concialdi said: "A majority of the fire has been knocked down. However, we still have some homes that have been impacted here, and as you can see, the wind is still blowing pretty strong up here," Concialdi said. "We're going to be here for a number of days," he said, warning that embers blown by the winds could start new fires.
The evacuation orders cover zones SJC04, SJC05 and SJC10 in San Juan Capistrano and zones SCL12 and SCL13 in San Clemente, encompassing roughly 4,600 homes and 16,000 people, McGovern said. Orange County sheriff's deputies went door to door in the areas under order telling people to leave, sheriff's spokesperson Sgt. Lizbeth Gwisdalla told CNN. Evacuation shelters opened at the San Juan Capistrano Community Center, 25925 Camino del Avion, and the San Clemente Community Center, 100 Calle Seville, and an overnight shelter opened Friday evening at the Boys and Girls Club at 1 Via Positiva in San Juan Capistrano. None of the evacuation orders covers Laguna Beach.
Black smoke billowed over tennis courts and swimming pools as firefighters doused blazing homes in San Juan Capistrano, and some homeowners sprayed water on their properties before leaving. San Clemente Mayor Rick Loeffler said: "Had these winds been a little bit stronger, a little bit different direction, this could have been a whole lot worse." San Juan Capistrano Councilmember Howard Hart said he and his wife soaked their roof with water and moved propane tanks away from their home before evacuating with a to go bag. His wife, Laura Hart, said she had never had to evacuate for a fire in more than five decades in the community. "This doesn't usually happen to us, we usually see it on the news," she said. "We always pray to God it's not us, but yeah, it was today." San Clemente Councilmember Victor Cabral said: "The fire is right up on the city. It's on the perimeter of our homes on the north end." U.S. Rep. Mike Levin said his family had to evacuate their San Juan Capistrano home. Resident Robert Morris told KCBS: "I've lived here since 1995, and this is the first time we've really ever had a fire in this area." In Dana Point, the city directly south of Laguna Beach, Wyoming resident Shannon Needham was visiting her mother at an assisted living facility when she learned about the fire, and the facility director said two buses would be on standby in case residents had to evacuate. "You could hear the fire trucks, you could hear the helicopters and everything above. And it was so smoky, it was just dark smoke," Needham said.
Two firefighters were taken to area hospitals. Fire officials said the injuries were significant but both firefighters were stable, and the Associated Press reported the injuries were heat related. Authorities have not said how the blaze started, and the cause remained under investigation on Friday night. Capistrano Unified School District dismissed students early at at least nine schools on Friday and canceled sports and after school programs.
California secured a federal Fire Management Assistance Grant from the Federal Emergency Management Agency to help pay for the response, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced on Friday. The grant is provided on a cost share basis and will let local, state and tribal agencies seek 75 percent reimbursement of eligible fire suppression costs, the governor's office said. "By securing this federal assistance, we are ensuring our local and state partners have the critical resources they need to aggressively fight the Norte Fire, protect lives and property, and keep Californians safe," Newsom said. The governor's office said Cal OES had positioned additional resources in Orange County on Thursday, Oct. 15, ahead of the fire weather, including five fire engines, one bulldozer, one water tender, one helicopter and 45 additional firefighters and support personnel.
The Norte Fire is one of several fires that have broken out since the Santa Ana winds began on Thursday. Near Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, the Henderson Fire has burned more than 2,000 acres since Thursday afternoon, according to Cal Fire, and it forced a temporary evacuation order for one area of the base and the closure of a nearby portion of Interstate 5 in San Diego County. In Malibu, the Bryson Fire has burned roughly 150 acres and was 39 percent contained on Friday, with more than 7,000 structures in areas under evacuation orders or warnings, a Los Angeles County Fire spokesperson told CNN. Utility companies shut off power for tens of thousands of customers across the state over concerns that equipment could spark fires in the dry winds.
For Laguna Beach, the fire weather that drove the Norte Fire is the same system sitting over the local coast this weekend. A heat advisory remains in effect until 8 p.m. Saturday for the Orange County and San Diego County coasts, the National Weather Service said, and conditions that increase the fire risk were expected to last through Saturday night. The forecast high in Laguna Beach on Saturday is 88 degrees, with an air quality alert in effect until 6 p.m. Forecasters expect the Santa Ana winds to remain elevated through Saturday and then diminish later in the weekend, with cooler air spreading in on Sunday, when the local high is forecast at 79 degrees. After the hot, dry weekend, the forecast turns wet: showers are likely in Laguna Beach on Wednesday and thunderstorms on Thursday.
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