10 firefighters suffer minor injuries while trying to contain Airport Fire

change giving some help to Firefighters trying to slow down three raging wildfires ravaging Southern California we begin with breaking news here as you see here officials are about to give us an update right now on the airport fire burning in Lake Elenor let's go ahead and listen in this is one of three major wildfires we're covering here in Southern California absolutely in that airport fire starting in Orange County crossing over those ridges we saw that breaking out earlier this week crossing over making its way all the way to Riverside County in Lake Elenor and unfortunately damaging and destroying some homes let's listen in thank you for being here my name is Shawn Doran fire captain and public information officer with the Orange County Fire Authority we appreciate you joining us today as we provide updates on the airport fire today's speakers include Kevin fedman division Chief Orange County Fire Authority and Incident Management team three Incident Commander John Maka assistant Sheriff Orange County Sheriff's Department Todd Hopkins division Chief calire and unified Incident Commander Daryl Vance District Ranger chbo Ranger District Cleveland National Forest after the speakers we will have a brief question and answer period at the conclusion of the press conference our speakers will be available for individual follow-ups with that our first Speaker chief fman good afternoon my name is Kevin fedman and I have been serving as one of the unified incident commanders on the airport fire in unified command with the Orange County Sheriff's department Cleveland National Forest calfire Riverside all of whom are standing behind me today I would also like to thank supervisor Foley for her attendance today and her support during this incident it's very important for me to thank the partner agencies as well as Orange County Fire Authority board of directors and everyone in the communities we have been working so hard to inform evacuate and protect your support of our First Responders and the vigilance and adhering to the evacuation orders has been integral to our efforts a few hours ago fire chief Brian finnessy stood at this very podium in remembrance of nearly 3,000 Souls Lost on 9112 2001 and I want to Echo his words in honor of those victims and 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 is at 22376 Acres meaning we held a 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 their 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 with which have included fuel moistures at critical levels and 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 helitanker 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 Elon more effect I want to end by thanking our firefighters and our professional staff as nearly every member of the OCA has contributed 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 Trabuco Road and Joshua Drive Plano Trabuco Road and Robinson Ranch Road Trabuco Canyon Road and trabo Creek Road Santa Margarita Parkway and Antonio Parkway Santa Santa Margarita Parkway in Plano Trabuco and have a hard closure at Ortega Highway and Nichols Institute and everything east of that until Ortega until Lake Elenor 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 Kota deaza Zone one 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 airport 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 Cypress and the N Ranch Saddle Club which is located at 6352 East n Ranch Road in the city of Anaheim we have two small animal shelters established at Mission vijo Animal Services which is located at 2895 Hill Crest in the city of mission vijo and the OC animal care which which is located at 1630 Victory Road 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 reception centers and animal shelters currently uh El cariso Village and uh Lakeland Village is still uh within evacuation warnings and evacuation orders today we had new evacuation warnings this morning that went South of white Sage Street and sugar cane Court West of Interstate 15 East of Orange County Riverside County Line and north of r Road San dieago 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 care 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 tascal Canyon High School in the big gym in the big gym located at 2875 5 5 eloro Road Lake or lake Elenor 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 animal shelter located at 6851 vanan Boulevard in Hupa Valley California and then an additional large animal shelter is available at the marota equestrian center located at 4267 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 8 7387 and then for residents of Riverside County for notifications if you'd like to view the map we'd like you to visit Riv Co re a d y.org alert hyen rivco again that's rivco r.org SL alert D rivco I'd like to thank 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 get 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 darl Vance I'm the district Ranger on the trbo 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 including large ones in the both the Angeles and the San Bernardino 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 C as well as 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 trio 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 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 of many of whom have uh rep Representatives sitting behind me here um both Orange County Riverside County um 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 question all right we've been listening to officials out in Irvine updating us on the airport fire if there's any good news to report here they were saying that the change in weather really helped slow the fire's growth they were able to improve fire lines which in turns help firefighters save properties out there unfortunately though it is still burned 22376 acres and is still 0% contained of course we will stay on top of this we also want to mention that there were two civilian injuries one was medical one was a burn also 10 firefighters with minor injuries