The coastal fire started on Wednesday afternoon around 2:45 pm. in Aliso Wildlife Park and Wood Canyon and quickly grew to about 200 acres, Orange County Assistant Fire Chief. of Field Operations TJ McGovern said. fire then spread to city of Laguna Niguel and hillside mansions in one of Wealthiest Neighborhoods in California.
According to McGovern, one firefighter was injured and hospitalized. About 900 homes are under evacuation orders, said Orange County Sheriff’s Department Captain Virgil Asuncion.
Jennifer McCoy, resident of next to Laguna Beach, told CNN that she first noticed smoke coming from Laguna Niguel around 4:15 pm. less than two hours later, the smoke clouds swelled even more, McCoy said.
“I was walking down in the mall below and the smoke rose maybe two by three times before,” she said.
Officials are still looking for cause of blaze
While cause of in fire is an unknown and during the course of the investigation, “chain activity” took place “close in time” when the brush fire It is reported by Southern California Edison (SCE). in initial incident report released on Wednesday evening.
“Our information reflects chain activity occurring near in time before the stated time of in fire” power the company said in document.
While no other details were provided, the utility said the report has been submitted.”out of abundance of caution, as it is associated with event what might fit the theme of significant public attention and/or media coverage reporting requirement.
The fire department is not comment neither confirm any details about the activities of the chain during news conference on Thursday morning.
“Our fire investigators are looking at this (chain activity) right now and they are going to look at all aspects of what could be caused it’s destructive fireMcGovern said. “We don’t have details, but our investigators will look into each possible cause.”
At the same time, there was no particular height. risk of fire on Wednesday, and officials and scientists were stunned speed and intensity of flame. Orange County Fire Chief Brian Fennessy said that fire like previously it was relatively minor. Not anymore.
“Fuel Beds in in this county, throughout Southern California, throughout the West, are so arid that fire like This will more business as usual,” he said.
Despite the efforts of firemen, t. fire still ran on first Defendants, officials said.
“We are seeing the spread in in ways we didn’t know before,” Fennessy said. — Five years ago, 10 years ago fire like it could grow to an acre, a couple of acres “before it was under control. But now,”fire spreads in this very dry vegetation and taking off,” he said.
“We do not have fire season. This is year-round now and these last four fires we had just proved it to everyone of us,” he said.
Residents of Laguna Niguel ordered to evacuate
Laguna Niguel resident Allan Aguilera told CNN that he and his family decided to evacuate when they saw the scope of flames from the observation deck in Neighborhood.
“When we reached the top, we saw full scale of how big in fire was also a witness how it spread quickly,” he said. – There were tons of people in in area do the same by watching fire before the winds changed and began to push the flame closer and closer. At this point, we decided to leave and go get ready. for Possible evacuation.”
“The situation was incredibly tense, but we kept our cool, gathered all our strength. valuable things… and made early evacuation to avoid any potential bottleneck if the worst case scenario play out”Aguilera added.
The fire brigade contacted using pond water at El Niguel Country Club in Laguna Niguel in help fight a flame in the form of thick brown and gray smoke covered area.
Crews assessed damage during the night and monitored for hot spots or flying embers that can spark more According to Fennessy, destructive flames.
area is an also forecast to get hotter next a few days. Temperatures will be 10 to 15 degrees above average in California and the southwest Friday through the weekend and into early May. next week.
“Today will be celebrated start of warming trend that last on Saturday. The maximum temperature will be above normal from today until Saturday, with Saturday is the warmest day of in next seven”, National Weather Service in Los Angeles said.
From ‘fire season ‘before’fire year’
Winter and spring are usually the rainy season for California, but year anything but nothing special in southern half of state. Los Angeles and Palm Springs off to their third and second- the driest start to year, respectively. Records in This region go back more than 70 years old.
Statewide, January through April were the driest first four months on recordThe US Drought Monitor reported Thursday. Above past in just one week, extreme drought increased from 40% of states up to 60%.
“We stopped talking about fire seasons.” — Isaac Sanchez, Cal Fire Battalion Commander of connection, CNN reported. “Meaning of that term that if we in fire season is time of year when we’re not in fire season. This is just not the case in California more.”
“This is result of climate change is result of drought that we are seeing,” Sanchez said. added. “The coastal fire is a clear example of what you do not need thousands of acres burned to hit you.”
Brandon Miller of CNN, Ella Nielsen, Sharif Paget and Taylor Ward contributed to this report.
.
Source: coastal fire destroys at least 20 homes in Orange County, California, hundreds evacuated
