New wildfire in Southern California explodes in size, burning multiple homes

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• A fast-moving wildfire in Southern California burned 570 acres and multiple homes.
• Evacuation orders affected 16,000 people in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.
• Two firefighters were injured and the fire is 5% contained as of Saturday.

SAN CLEMENTE, Calif. — A fast-moving wildfire in Southern California quickly consumed hundreds of acres and burned multiple homes after sparking in Orange County Friday, county officials said.

The Norte Fire began around noon near a neighborhood in the San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano areas and by Friday evening had grown to 570 acres, the Orange County Fire Authority said. It's one of several fires that have broken out since Thursday amid fierce Santa Ana winds affecting Southern California.

"Our actions today will be to continue to attack the fire and work toward getting residents home as soon as it's safe to so do," Orange County Fire Authority Captain Greg Barta said Saturday morning in a video on X.

Topography and weather conditions allowed the fire to grow rapidly, Orange County Division 3 Fire Chief Mark Backoff said in a video posted to social media Friday afternoon.

Six homes have been destroyed or damaged by the fire, and two firefighters suffered "significant" injuries but are stable in area hospitals, fire officials said.

Evacuation orders were issued for multiple areas in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano, encompassing roughly 4,600 homes and 16,000 people, Orange County Fire Authority Chief TJ McGovern said. Officials asked residents to be patient as they evaluate when it will be safe to return home.

Officials said progress had been made against the fire by the evening but warned conditions remained volatile.

"A majority of the fire has been knocked down. However, we still have some homes that have been impacted here, and as you can see, the wind is still blowing pretty strong up here," Orange County Fire Authority spokesperson Steve Concialdi said.

The fire is now 5% contained as of Saturday morning. Crews' objective is "keeping the fire within its current footprint," McGovern said at a news conference Friday evening.

Aerial footage from CNN affiliate KCBS showed multiple houses burning Friday afternoon.

Resident Robert Morris called the sudden threat to homes "a wake-up call," telling KCBS, "I've lived here since 1995, and this is the first time we've really ever had a fire in this area."

U.S. Rep. Mike Levin, a Democrat whose district includes part of Orange County, said his family had to evacuate their San Juan Capistrano home while he attended an event nearby.

Levin thanked firefighters for preventing greater damage from the fire and said "year-round wildfire season" has become the "new normal" for Southern California.

Orange County sheriff's deputies were going door to door in areas under evacuation order, telling people to leave for their safety, Sgt. Lizbeth Gwisdalla, a spokesperson for the sheriff's department, told CNN.

Ten schools were dismissed early "out of an abundance of caution" and sports and after-school programs were canceled, Capistrano Unified School District announced.

Wind gusts in the area reached 25 mph Friday afternoon and remained elevated into the evening. The Santa Ana winds were expected to peak Friday but remain elevated through Saturday and then diminish later in the weekend.

"We're going to be here for a number of days," Concialdi said of the ongoing danger, stressing the need to guard against new fires that could erupt from embers blown by the strong Santa Ana winds.

Fires spark across Southern California

Several fires have broken out since Santa Ana winds began Thursday, forcing evacuations in other areas of Southern California.

In Malibu, more than 7,000 structures were in areas under evacuation orders or warnings on Friday because of the Bryson Fire, which has burned roughly 150 acres and is 52% contained since starting Thursday evening, a Los Angeles County Fire spokesperson told CNN, estimating the number of people under evacuation orders to be in the hundreds.

Crews made "great progress" against the fire overnight, Los Angeles County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone said during a news conference Friday morning.

At least one firefighter had "minor injuries" and was taken to the hospital, he said. The chief did not provide additional details except to say, "They've been on the line all night, so minor injuries are expected."

The fire is still threatening more than 100 structures in the area, but no damages have been reported. "But obviously, if the winds kick up later this afternoon and we were to lose containment of the fire, a larger area could be affected and under threat," the chief said. Over 400 firefighters and more than 75 "ground and aerial resources" are committed to the Bryson Fire, he said.

Another wildfire to the south has burned more than 2,000 acres near the Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton since igniting Thursday afternoon, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (Cal Fire).

The Henderson Fire forced a temporary evacuation order for one area of the base Thursday and the closure of a nearby portion of Interstate 5 in San Diego County, the Marine Corps said in a statement Friday. Smoke affected visibility along both sides of the highway Friday afternoon, the California Highway Patrol said.

The Camp Pendleton Fire Department and Cal Fire continue to actively fight the fire, but it was burning "in a remote section" of the base and there were no active threats to personnel or facilities, the Marine Corps statement Friday said.

The dangerous fire conditions in Southern California have also prompted utility companies to temporarily shut off power for tens of thousands over concerns that equipment could spark fires.

The Key Takeaways for this article were generated with the assistance of large language models and reviewed by our editorial team. The article, itself, is solely human-written.

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