Airport Fire in Orange County: Officials give update on firefight

the legacy of the 343 firefighters who made the ultimate sacrifice that day thank you on the airport fire the change in weather overnight slowed the fire's growth and empowered the ground and Air Forces to significantly improve fire lines including ones that will protect the communities in the event of any wind changes the acreage now stands at 22376 Acres meaning mean we held the fire to Min minimal perimeter growth last night through today and our firefighters are working around the clock to not only uphold that Trend but hopefully begin containment in the next few days some structures off of the Ortega Highway have been damaged and destroyed the extent of which remains unknown at this time as it is unsafe for our assessment teams to enter that area there have been two civilian injuries reported a medical issue and a burn patient and we do not have updates on the status of those two civilians at this time a total of 10 firefighters have received minor injuries we continue to prioritize firefighter safety especially as we approach the fourth day of this firefighter firefight with many of our firefighters having worked double shifts in extremely hot conditions there work has saved lives and property and while we remain at 0% containment it's important to understand that containment includes three major objectives establish improve and secure the fire line again with the change in weather and our ongoing work we expect to see progress in achieving those objectives in the coming days despite the fire's many challenges which have included fuel moistures at critical levels and the the fact that some of these areas haven't burned in decades the terrain and topography have presented extreme challenges but the timing of ocfa's new Firehawk helicopters could not have been better as their nighttime drops along with that the helot tanker drops from the quick reaction force and our other helicopters have made a tremendous impact moving forward one of our main priorities is to the East and to with our partners with Riverside County we have significant fire history in that area some of you might remember the Decker fire of 1959 during which six firefighters lost their lives the memorial for that fire is in the fire's path today reminding all of us to be vigilant particularly during the Elenor effect I want to end by thanking our firefighters and our professional staff as nearly every member of the OCA has contribut to this firefight in some way many working around the clock as a result of this commitment our fire stations remain covered our communities continue to receive excellent service and we are beginning to see progress on the fire thank you good afternoon I'm assistant Sheriff John McCulla with the Orange County Sheriff's Department first I'd like to thank our partners with the Orange County Fire Authority calire and the US Forestry service for being in unified command with us as we work through this fire most importantly I'd like to thank the community for their support and patience as we continue to address the changing conditions we continue to update evacuation orders and assist with road closures to ensure the safety and security of our residents and homes currently we have closures at the following locations Plano trbo Road and Joshua Drive Plano Trabuco Road and Robinson Ranch Road trbo Canyon Road and Trabuco Creek Road Santa Margarita Parkway and Antonio Parkway Santa Santa Margarita Parkway in Plano Trabuco and we have a hard closure at Ortega Highway and Nichols Institute and everything east of that until Orga until Lake osor mandatory evacuation orders continue to be in effect for the following areas the neighborhood of Robinson Ranch in the city of Rancho Santa Margarita the areas of Rancho CIO Hot Springs Canyon Casper's Park Blue J Campground Falcon Campground San Juan Campground and the Ortega corridor there's also a mandatory evacuation order in the neighborhood of el cariso which is in Riverside County we continue to have voluntary evacuation orders in effect in the following areas Dove Canyon in Rancho cello Rancho Santa Margarita Zone 2 Trabuco Canyon Rose Canyon and Holy Jim canyon Koda deaza zones 1 and two Silverado Canyon and maesa Canyon we continue to meet regularly and confer with The Incident Management teams for decisions about repopulation for up-to-date emergency messaging including a map of evacuation areas and the zones please refer to OC sheriff. goov aort fire the Orange County Emergency Management and the City of ranch of Santa Margarita have established a care Reception Center which is located at the bell tower Regional Community Center located at 22232 El Paso in the city of Rancho Santa Margarita and the Red Cross is there available to assist with the evacuated residents we also have large animal shelters established throughout the county and they're located at three locations the Orange County Fairgrounds which is located at 88 Fair Drive in the city of Costa Mesa the Los alaminos ra race course which is located on catella Avenue in the city of Cyprus and the no Ranch Saddle Club which is located at 6352 eastn Ranch Road in the city of Anaheim we have two small animal shelters established at Mission vijo Animal Services which is located at 28095 Hillcrest in the city of Mission Vio and the OC animal care which is located at 1630 Victory Road in in the city of Tustin for emergency messaging in your area this is a reminder to please sign up at o alert.com www alert.com in closing I'd like to emphasize a couple of important points please be prepared to evacuate if you are living in the area near the fires fires spark up and the conditions change rapidly with the wind also if you don't live in the area in the affected areas we would ask that you stay out so responding law enforcement and fire person Personnel can respond and have quick access to protect life and property and finally we have a large police presence in the area to maintain the Safety and Security of our residents and their homes in the affected area and we will enforce the law I want to underscore that we want to thank the affected residents we know it's a difficult time for you and we thank you for your support and patience as we work through these evolving changes thank you good afternoon I'm Todd Hopkins unified Incident Commander from calire and calire Riverside County Fire Department I will be covering the Riverside County portion of the fire over the evacuations care and reception centers and animal shelters currently uh El cariso Village and uh Lakeland Village is still uh within evacuation mornings and evacuation orders today we had new evacuation warnings this morning that went South of white Sage Street and sugarcane Court West of Interstate 15 East of Orange County Riverside County Line and north of merid Road Santiago Kanto Road and mayew Canyon Road in total there are 5,513 homes that are under an evacuation order affecting 19,29 residents there are 9,581 homes currently under an evacuation warning affecting 33533 residents in Riverside County there uh Riverside County EMD has a car and reception shelter set up at the following locations Tesco Canyon High School it's 28755 El Toro Road Lake Elenor California Santiago High School 1395 East Foothill Parkway in Corona California an additional evacuation center is open at tuscal Canyon High School in the big gym excuse me in the big gym located at 28755 El Toro Road Lake or lake elen or California the site is equipped with CS Air Conditioning Wi-Fi water snacks and welcoming staff we also have animal shelters in Riverside County that are open the Hupa Valley Animal Shelter located at 6851 vanan Boulevard in Hupa Valley California and then an additional large animal shelter is available at the marot equestrian center located at 42 670 Juniper Street in marota California basic food water basic food and water are available at animal shelters if your pets or animals have special diets or special needs please bring the special food or medications with your animals Riverside County residents needing assistance with large animal evacuations can call the following number at 951 358 7387 at then for residents of Riverside County for notifications if you'd like to view the map we'd like you to visit Riv c r a d y.org SL alert hyen rivco again that's rivco already.org alert D rco I'd like to thank all the citizens and all of our partner agencies also that we've been working with on this incident for the the patients uh from the residents uh we're doing our best to get you back in on during the evacuation periods it gets you back into your homes we are looking at that every day to evaluate to see when it's safe to get you back in the homes that's one of our number one priorities so thank you for being patient and we will continue to go out and do the best we can uh of getting this fire out so thank you very much hi good afternoon uh my name is Daryl Vance I'm the district Ranger on the tribo ranger district of the Cleveland National Forest uh Forest Service uh on this fire the uh the forest service is fully engaged and uh we are bringing uh Federal resources to bear as as soon as they are available to us um although I do want to remind folks that uh you know we currently are um engaged in multiple fires across the Southland uh including large in the both the Angeles and the San berardino national forests I I also want to remind folks that um um although uh this this fight is uh been going on for a while it's it's far from over um we we know this is going to take a little bit of of time to to put this fire away and that um you know we currently are aware of um several recreational cabins as well as uh other recreational um infrastructure in the National Forest that have been damaged um although we're not uh currently uh able to determine what the extent of the damage is um for reasons that have already been described that uh it's going to take some time to get in there and and really give things a look and make sure that uh it's safe to do so at the right time uh currently um the trabo ranger district of the Cleveland National Forest is closed um to all Recreation South of uh pretty much of Corona Bedford Canyon Line south um till well beyond well beyond south of the Ortega Highway and we do encourage um our users that uh you know when there is an active fire uh environment and um we are engaged in a firefight to please stay home um you know this is not the time to come out and um engage in Recreation when there's an emergency situation and finally I'd like to um thank all of our cooperating agencies many of whom have uh rep represented sitting behind me here um both Orange County Riverside County um and uh all members of the community who have uh assisted with us thank you very much big thank you to all of our speakers and all those standing behind us in support we will now open it up to a brief question and answer period as a reminder speakers will be available after for individual breakouts first question well we know that there are uh have been structures damaged and destroyed um because of the active firefight and the heat in some of those areas um we haven't made access we have damage assessment teams ready to go um and we'll be deployed as soon as it's safe to get in there and do the complete the assessment uh and come back with uh accurate information on the the total there's a few different ways that we establish containment lines um based on our type of fire attack we can go direct right on the fire line um when tactically and strategically that makes sense we can also go indirect off the fire line on ridges and other geographical features that are um the most strategically advantageous um so that that really depends upon the nature and the location of the geography in the area it's a little bit of a nuanced answer but um our division supervisors are directly on boots on the ground um identifying the appropriate strategy and tactics in those particular areas to determine which types of fire line that they establish and what types of resources they use yeah so pretty significant fire Behavior yesterday um although today we've seen I think you can all feel that the weather has moderated a decrease in uh temperature an increase in RH all those um factors have a tendency to um at sometimes decrease the fire behavior um there are other scenarios when fire becomes in alignment and burns more aggressively um so we are actively monitoring it and like as I said earlier um identifying and utilizing the appropriate strategy and tactics to be uh the most successful thank you for joining us this concludes today's airport fire press conference thank you