Hills Burn Near Homes

Flames that could be seen for miles raced through the western ridge of Coto de Caza on Thursday, charring about 170 acres, authorities said.

The fire was caused by a malfunction in a tractor mowing grass about 1:50 p.m., possibly to reduce the fire hazard in the area, Capt. Scott Brown, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority, said.

“Typically, when the grass gets high and in this dry season, sometimes they’ll mow the grass as hazard-reduction efforts,” Brown said.

Although flames came within 100 yards of a residential area, firefighters said homes were never threatened.

The fire was contained by 8 p.m., in part due to the “cooperation” of the wind blowing in the opposite direction of the fire’s spread, Brown said. “It was the one thing helping us.”

About 200 firefighters from several departments fought the blaze, which was reported by a sheriff’s helicopter pilot flying over Coto de Caza Drive and Fairway Lane, said Dennis Shell, another spokesman for the Fire Authority.

“It started with a half-acre grass fire,” Shell said. “All of a sudden, the fire spread and just got bigger and bigger.”

When firefighters arrived, they could see “a black and gray giant cloud of smoke going up in the air” resembling a small atomic bomb mushroom, Shell said. Flames swept down the ridge and came within 100 yards of the estate of William Lyon, one of Orange County’s biggest developers, firefighters said.

Hundreds of residents returning home to the Coto de Caza and Wagon Wheel Canyon communities were turned away by sheriff’s deputies at Oso and Antonio parkways, prompting anxiety about family and possessions.

Rachel Button, 14, waited outside the barricade for her mother, Janet Cahill, who had run home to check on Button’s 8-month-old brother.

“My baby brother is in there with our baby sitter, and she’s without a car,” Button said. “I went to my school today and got picked up by my mom. When we drove up to Oso Parkway, we just stopped and we were horrified as we saw the smoke all over the hills.”

Cahill said she ran more than a mile to her home and carted her baby out in a stroller, flanked by the baby sitter and the family’s cocker spaniel, Marbles.

“The area was very dark,” Cahill, 38, said. “It didn’t smell really smoky yet, but you could see flames.”

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Holly Franks, an administrative assistant at Mission San Juan Capistrano who lives in Coto de Caza, said she was at work when her son called her.

“I freaked,” Franks said. “My son called me and said, ‘Mom, you’ve got to come home because the fire is like right here at the house!’ ”

At the time, flames were consuming brush within a mile of Franks’ home, and smoke could be seen for miles.

“I drove as far in [to Coto] as I could before police stopped me,” she said. “They wouldn’t let me get any farther. So I started to run across the golf course and someone gave me a ride on a golf cart over to my house.”

Five airplanes and three helicopters dropped water on the blaze while scores of firefighters in more than 70 fire engines tried to contain the flames from the ground. Fire departments responding to the fire included Costa Mesa, Newport Beach, Fullerton and Anaheim. The U.S. Forest Service and the state Department of Forestry also helped, Brown said. One firefighter sprained his ankle while battling the blaze, but the injury was not serious, Brown said.

Authorities opened up the roads about 7 p.m. and were expected to control the fire by 6 a.m. today.

For Barbara and Donald Orman, who have lived in the upscale development for 10 years and who lost another home there in the 1993 Ortega Fire, the smell of smoke brought deja vu.

“As soon as we smelled smoke and heard that it was a fire, I just knew I had to get my two cats and my 84-year-old mother and get out of here,” Barbara Orman said.

Her husband said that Thursday’s fire was especially scary because it swept through “so quickly. And before I knew it, Barbara was ready to leave. She was here alone in 1993 and she’s more serious about evacuating our home than I am.”