A fast-growing brush fire erupted in the tinder-dry foothills of southern Orange County on Friday, injuring two firefighters, damaging at least six homes and prompting dire warnings by officials, who ordered thousands of people to immediately evacuate.
The Norte fire, as that blaze was called, started about 11:30 a.m. on Friday, when local fire officials said it was just 10 acres. About four hours later, the blaze had exploded to more than 450 acres, engulfing a pocket of wilderness tucked in the middle of wealthy suburban neighborhoods with ocean views.
Strong winds fanned the rapidly spreading fire — which had grown to 570 acres by Friday evening — and firefighting efforts were focused on keeping it from becoming larger, Chief TJ McGovern of the Orange County Fire Authority said in a news briefing.
Dramatic local news footage showed several large homes engulfed in flames, while images posted on social media by the fire authority showed glowing red fire lines and plumes of smoke churning through brown grass along trails, just over a ridgeline from winding cul-de-sacs lined by houses with red-tiled roofs.
Nearly 16,000 people in the cities of San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente have been ordered to evacuate, Chief McGovern said. About 400 firefighters had been deployed to the Norte fire and another 400 firefighters were on their way, he added.
The two injured firefighters were in stable condition in nearby hospitals, Chief Kevin Fetterman, the fire authority’s incident commander for the Norte fire, said at the news briefing on Friday evening. He did not specify the nature of their injuries. Capt. Steve Concialdi, a spokesman for the fire authority, had said earlier that a firefighter had been treated for heat exhaustion.
The Norte fire was just the latest in a string of blazes that have ignited in Southern California, as strong Santa Ana winds combined with dry air and hot temperatures to create especially combustible conditions that were forecast to last into Saturday.
Most were quickly contained, but the howling winds throughout the region have left residents and officials on edge; all it takes, as raging wildfires in recent years have shown, is one windblown ember to destroy an entire community.
And billowing smoke from wildfires can wreak havoc of its own. The Henderson fire in the Camp Pendleton area north of San Diego had burned roughly 2,080 acres as of Tuesday afternoon, but early evacuation orders had been lifted. Still, the smoke from the fire prompted the authorities to close Interstate 5, a major artery connecting San Diego and Orange counties.
Farther north, hundreds of firefighters had started to gain control of the Bryson fire, which was burning through dry brush in the Santa Monica Mountains north of Malibu, Calif. The Bryson fire ignited late Thursday afternoon and quickly spread to more than 140 acres and forced evacuations. On Friday afternoon, about 12,000 people were under evacuation warnings, according to a New York Times analysis.
Friday was delivering the hottest temperatures and strongest winds of the week, with highs in the 90s and winds up to 50 miles per hour in the valleys and up to 90 m.p.h. in the mountains.
Much of Los Angeles County and neighboring Ventura County will be under a red flag warning through Saturday, and mountainous areas of Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo Counties were under warnings through Friday evening. The warnings mean that experts are worried that fires could start more easily and spread quickly if they do.
Any new fires that start on Friday could “get really big, really fast,” said Ryan Kittell, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service office in Oxnard.
At 3 p.m., the National Weather Service said the worst of the winds were likely over in the area of the Norte fire, but windy weather remained in the forecast into Saturday.
“We’re seeing the winds decrease already, but it’s going to be a slow progression for the next few hours,” said Jonathan Suk, a meteorologist with the Weather Service office in San Diego.
A wind advisory for parts of Orange County, including where the Norte fire was burning, was in effect through noon Saturday.
Southern California Edison preemptively cut power to more than 130,000 homes and businesses to reduce the risk that power lines knocked over by winds could send sparks flying.
Leaders in Los Angeles on Friday morning tried to reassure skittish residents of the county’s vast, hilly areas most prone to fires that they are ready for any blazes that might ignite, while also urging residents to stay vigilant.
“We know the uncertainty that comes with these fires, which is why it’s important for us to look out for one another and to stay prepared,” Lindsey Horvath, a Los Angeles County supervisor, said in a news conference on Friday.
“Know your zone, sign up for alerts, have your go bag ready, and if you’re told to evacuate, do so immediately,” she said.
More than 400 firefighters have been sent to battle the Bryson fire, which was about 39 percent contained as of Friday.
“Great progress was made by firefighters overnight,” said Anthony Marrone, the Los Angeles County fire chief.
Mr. Marrone said that no structures had been destroyed or damaged so far.
Residents of the remote canyon areas near the fire were ordered to evacuate, while other residents were under warnings. Nearby parks, roads and the Getty Villa, a museum perched above the Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu, were all closed preemptively.
California has had fewer fires this year, with only 300,000 acres burning since Jan. 1, compared with the over one million acres that fires would have typically burned by mid-October.
For Angelenos, Friday’s conditions called to mind the ones that helped lead to the Palisades fire and the Eaton fire last year, which together killed dozens of people and burned thousands of homes. Many residents who were displaced in Malibu and in the nearby Pacific Palisades neighborhood of Los Angeles still haven’t returned. In the aftermath of those catastrophes, numerous reports found that the county and city were ill-prepared for wildfires of that magnitude.
This week, Los Angeles leaders — including Mayor Karen Bass, whose reputation never fully recovered after she was out of the country when the Palisades fire ignited — have emphasized that firefighters and equipment have already been sent out to high-risk areas, even if there is no active fire.
The Los Angeles County sheriff, Robert Luna, on Friday morning warned would-be burglars that deputies would be on the streets of the evacuated areas and that the department was adding extra patrols.
“If you think you’re going to come in and take advantage of these poor folks who have been asked to evacuate or don’t have power,” he said, they would most likely encounter officers.
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