Orange County officials provide information on Airport Fire burning in Trabuco Canyon

[Music] we're following breaking news right now happening now fire officials giving us an update on the airport fire burning there in TR trabo Canyon let's listen model airport in Chuka Canyon and Orange County Fire sent a Rob robust response both on the ground and from the air today I this evening I have a number of speakers that are going to give you updates on the fire the fire is in unified command with the Orange County Fire Authority Orange County Sheriff's department and the Cleveland National Forest from the Orange County fire department will be deputy chief TJ McGovern from the Orange County Sheriff's department will be assistant Sheriff John niola from the Cleveland National Forest will be District Ranger Daryl Vance and from the Orange County Board of Supervisors will be Don Wagner and our final speaker will be the mayor of Santa Margarita Rancher Santa Margarita Carol gamble so I'm going to introduce deputy chief TJ McGovern good evening everyone TJ McGovern Deputy Chief of the Emergency Operations Bureau for Orange County Fire Authority and this evening I'm going to give you a briefing of the airport fire that we currently have going on so this afternoon at approximately 1:04 p.m. our emergency command center received a call for a vegetation fire off trabo Creek Road in unincorporated Orange County and that's near the RC airport that was uh Captain con Aldi just talked about when initial Crews arrived on scene they reported a Halfacre vegetation fire on both sides of the road and it was there was a potential for a large major incident right off the get-go the initial response from OCA was a robust response with multiple resources on the initial call that included our aircraft which had rotary and fix WI and also our partners from calfire and the United States Forest Service also provided resources to assist us Crews immediately requested multiple additional uh resources to help from outside of our County to our neighboring counties and to our region for this battle we had the fire is being driven by topography and Fuel and it's right now it's headed up Canyon so quickly from a Halfacre the fire fire Cal to 300 acres and now sits at 1900 acres and in perspective that's 1900 football fields the fire is currently progressing a state of up Canyon right now the crews will be working throughout the night and for the next couple of days uh for suppression and mitigation efforts an example of these are perimeter control and structured defense but also has stated that the fire is now moving away from the community of Robinson Ranch and it's heading up the canyon uh as we see behind us uh we are in unified command with uh Orange County Sheriff's department and also United States forest service we did have two firefighter injuries those both were heat related injuries they were treated and transported to a local hospital we also had one civilian injury with smoke inhalation that uh person was also transported and treated to a local hospital currently we have approximately 1,000 firefighters on scene through the night and in the next couple of days and no properties were damaged and that's all I have to report right now I appreciate it and I will give it to the Orange County Sheriff assistant chief mcol good evening first I'd like to thank our partners with the Orange County Fire Authority for being in unified command with us I'd also like to thank the community for their support and patience as we work to respond to this fire our role in a fire incident is to assist the Orange County Fire Authority with road closures and evacuations and to ensure the safety of any homes and residents during the evacuation currently we have road closures at the following locations Plano trbo Road and Joshua Drive Plano trbo Road in Robinson Ranch Road Antonio Parkway and a lost dep trabo Canyon Road and Trabuco Creek Road Santa Margarita Parkway and Antonio Parkway and avenita andessa and Santa Margarita Parkway uh mandatory evacuations have been ordered for the community of Robinson Ranch which is estimated about 1427 homes uh voluntary evacuation warnings are in effect for the following areas trbo Rose and Holy Jim canyon and Dove Canyon and the community of Rancho cello the Emergency Operations Center in the city of Rancho Santa Margarita have established a care Reception Center at the following location Bel Tower Regional Community Center at 22232 El Paso in the city of Rancho Santa Margarita and the Red Cross will be available to assist evacuated residents large animal shelter has been established at the Orange County Fairgrounds which is located at 88 Fair Drive in the city of Costa Mesa to evacuate the horses for any updated emergency messaging and including a map of the evacuation area please visit OC sheriff. goov backport fire and this is a reminder that if residents haven't signed up for the alert OC they can sign up for alert OC and get get messaging at alerto oc.com in closing I'd like to remind the residents that the incident can change at a moment's notice it's important if you live in the area to be prepared to evacuate and I want to thank again the community for their support and patience next up I'd like to welcome Cleveland National Forest District Ranger darl Vance darl Vance District Ranger on the tabuka ranger district of the Cleveland National Forest the uh Federal response on this fire um we really appreciate the the work that uh Orange County has done and um we were quick to assist with a a good initial attack response um as folks were aware this is one of three major fires burning in the Southland right now um and so um our resources uh were available and we were we jumped on this as soon as we could uh currently this is burning towards the uh generally the footprint of the uh 2018 Holy Fire and um obviously uh we don't want to make predictions on on what we think it's going to do but um we have high hopes that that's going to assist us with a prior burn scar um as as folks have noted uh we have a number of resources on the fire currently um fortunately as far as we're aware we uh do not have any um structures burned uh as of yet um but um the this Fire's got a long ways to go before it's out and we do appreciate uh the patience of the community and we do ask that uh folks try and stay away from where the fire is being fought um we've got a number of gates that are closed and we ask that the members of the community respect uh that the uh the battle's ongoing I appreciate it uh from there I'd like to uh introduce uh Orange County Board of supervisor Don Wagner good evening and uh thank you all for coming out and helping us get the word out to the people of Orange County um as you've heard from the folks that have come before me it is an all Hands-On deck situation and so far everything is working in coordination once we learned about this fire we stood at the county we stood up our Emergency Operations Center I personally have had opportunities to chat with Chief fennessy of OC FAA with Sheriff Barnes with men and women under their command I've even talked to uh uh Orange County congresswoman young Kim who like me represents this District she's pledged the support of the federal government and so we've got all layers of government involved and then I also had a chance to call Mayor gamble to make sure that if there's anything we can do we'll do it and so I will assure you from the mun Municipal level through the county on up to the state and the federal government we are on this doing what we can to protect life and Li out there in Orange County but the one thing that can most protect people is not the wonderful work of the men and women behind me it is the work of you out in the community to protect yourselves your families your loved ones your animals you heard about some of the evacuation orders some of them are not yet mandatory don't wait for a mandatory evacuation order if you're under an involuntary evacuation order please no those are not issued lightly that is the time to get going that it could happen there could be an evacuation order coming your way means that's the time to get prepared figure out what you're taking how you're taking it the time to protect yourselves is now not when you get an emergency absolute order to evacuate because then you put yourself your loved ones your neighbors the men and women that are working to fight this fire all of them at risk and so to the community know that you've got some dedicated professionals here and know that they are counting on you to help do your part in protecting yourselves your property and most important your loved ones and so to the community I say as you heard from the sheriff check out alerto go on to the sheriff's website go on to the Orange County Fire authorities website follow me my website will be putting out information at on Wagner CA keep yourself informed as to the progress of this fire what you can do to help these men and women help you that's the message that I'd like to drive home to the community it is our turn to protect ourselves and so now now is the time to figure out what you're going to do if you're in fact forced to get out I will at this time turn it over to the city of Rancher Santa margarit as mayor who has been on this on the Emergency Operations Center since the fire broke out to to tell you about the city's response ladies and gentlemen mayor Carol Gamble good evening ladies and gentlemen my name is Carol gamble I'm the mayor of Rancho Santa Margarita and I'm also a longtime serving board member of OCA so I'm sporting both Brands right now it gives me pleasure to thank the men and women of the Orange County Sheriff's department and the Orange County Fire Authority and our friends at calire and also my city staff under the leadership of our city manager Jennifer Cervantes for the coordin ated and professional response I realize that this is probably your first go around at something like this and it's scary and it's looks so bad however I want to tell you that I know every person standing here and that's because I've worked with them for years and they have worked with each other we do drills in anticipation of this type of event and so I hope that brings you a small amount of Peace for what I believe might be considerable anxiety as the previous speakers have mentioned the fire is moving away from us and I do want to say a few things first if you have been evacuated and you have animals in your home and you have been unable to retrieve them due to the evacuation our friends at the Mission Vio animal shelter which is who we contract our animal services with they're stationed right down the street here at the shopping center at the corner of plet trbo and Santa Margarita Parkway they have volunteers there that are able to retrieve your animals from your home and they are doing it one at a time they're doing this for us and for you and we're so appreciative of their efforts second it's extremely important and I thank you because I do know you're the best residents in Orange County that you follow the direction of the sheriff's department and the Fire Authority when they ask you to leave please do so when they ask you to stay off the street please do so we need the streets clear so that we can get our First Responders to the fire and the people that we are evacuating out of home's way I would deeply appreciate your assistance with that and with that I thank you so much and please stay tuned to the various websites I think Don did a great job sorry supervisor Wagner did a great job outlining them this team will work all night long for you and I thank you so much all right tonight you've just uh been listening to officials giving us an update on the airport fire and tabuka Canyon uh we know it has grown to 1900 Acres so far prompting uh evacuation orders for those who are living in the area um the big news tonight uh good news that the fire is uh seemingly moving away from the homes and headed up um the canyon so far no properties have been damaged we know two firefighters uh had to go to the hospital for heat related injuries and one person uh was treated for smoke inhalation they talked about this being a robust fire um so they are have been uh responding in a robust way on the ground and in the air uh we know the call came in just after 1:00 this afternoon of a vegetation fire here and we know by 2: clock uh uh 7 Acres had already been scorched then suddenly that jumped to 1900 Acres um within 3 hours we also know that there uh there is a care shelter uh for residents who have been displaced or they have already uh evacuated at the bell tower Regional Community Center Red Cross is on hand there to help residents who have been evacuated also uh an animal shelter uh at the Orange County Fairgrounds has also been set up there for uh people in their um animals and their pets we do know that things can change in a moment's notice with this fire uh and one of the officials saying that the fire still has a long way to go before it is completely out uh so we're going to continue to watch this throughout the night and we'll have the very latest coming up on kout news tonight at 8: