Whew!

Mary A. Castillo

Lagunans held their collective breath Wednesday as a wildfire flared

up in Laguna Canyon leaving 82 acres burned.

The fire started at about 12:47 p.m. while a heavy equipment operator

from the county was clearing brush along the east side of Laguna Canyon

Road near Castle Rock Road. The area is in an unincorporated county

jurisdiction.

“We believe that a blade hit a rock and with the right conditions

created a spark,” said Captain Stephen Miller, public information officer

for the Orange County Fire Authority. “He tried to put it out with dirt

but it got out of hand.”

But no one knew those details when they first saw the smoke in the

distance as they were finishing their lunch hour and starting back toward

work or home.

The Laguna Beach Police Department immediately began diverting

irritated drivers away from Laguna Canyon Road. But as word spread

throughout downtown, people began climbing to the top of buildings and

stopping on sidewalks, faces turned east where a smudge of brown smoke

marred a Southern California blue sky.

Outside the Sawdust, Seven Degrees and the Boys and Girls Club,

workers and artists stood watching the direction of the wind and

remembering all too vividly the fire of 1993.

“We just heard an announcement over the PA,” said Carmen Silva, a

photographer who had been working on her booth. “They didn’t suggest we

leave but I’m taking my work out and anyone else’s art I can fit into my

car.”

At Canyon Acres Drive, neighbors stood out on the road, some carrying

small children and bags filled with irreplaceable belongings.

Although she was only four at the time, Amanda Winner remembers the

fear when they were evacuated nine years ago.

“It was scary. I remember getting in the car and the smoke,” she said.

Conversation stopped when the sound of helicopter blades throbbed

overhead. A snorkel trailed behind it as it circled toward the smoke.

Unlike the 1993 fire, aerial attacks on this fire began within the first

10 to 12 minutes of the fire. But that didn’t stop Canyon residents just

west of the fire from turning on sprinklers on rooftops or soaking their

yards with garden hoses.

“The 1993 fire was a fire we thought wouldn’t get out of control,”

said Jennifer Burge. “But it did.” About 100 feet from the command post

at Castle Rock Road where the fire originated, a group of residents with

homes in the area waited anxiously.

“I was having lunch in downtown when my business partner called to

tell me about the fire,” said Phillip Burkhardt, a general contractor

whose business and home were nearby. “They won’t let us into our homes,”

he said.

Alan Turner, whose home stood on Stan Oaks was less patient. “They

suggested we put sprinklers on the roof after the last fire but they

won’t allow you to go home to turn them on,” he said. Fearing that the

wind would send embers over the road, he shook his head angrily.

“They won’t allow me to even help myself,” he added as he rolled a

cigarette and lit it. “And that’s a problem.”

At 2:30 P.M., Captain Miller reported that the fire consumed 40 to 50

acres. Orange County Fire Authority crews attacked the fire from the top

of the ridge and at the bottom near the road. Behind him, slender plumes

of smoke drifted upward, telling of a fire that hadn’t given up the

fight.

“If the wind holds we may contain it at 60 acres,” he said. Although

more than 70 fire fighters were on scene, additional resources were en

route, he said.

However, aerial units were requested immediately. California Division

of Forestry planes, together with helicopters from the Fire Authority,

Orange County Sheriffs Department and the San Bernardino Sheriffs

Department, took turns making passes over the terrain.

Across the road from the command post, three workers from the Laguna

County Water District watched a crew of firemen attack a flare-up high up

above the road.

“We came out here to make sure they have enough water,” said Don

Colucci, spokesperson for the water district. The crew checked that the

small station of thick blue pipes curving up out and back down into the

ground was pushing plenty of up flow to the fire hydrants nearby.

“We’ve got lots of water,” Colucci said. “More water than they’ll be

able to use.”

Engineer Ray Falcon of Fire Authority station 22 in Laguna Hills,

manned the water and fire retardant foam supplies to the hoses that

snaked up the hill.

“My crew took off as soon as we pulled up,” he said. “I haven’t seen

or heard from them since, but I know they’re doing the best job they can

do.”

The crew made an attack at the bottom of the hill to cut the fire off

from the road and businesses like Laguna Gardens Nursery across the way.

Above Falcon, the brush covering the rise was untouched.

Although he was well out of danger, Falcon was pretty clear where he’d

rather be.

“Up there is where all the action is,” he said.

At 3:30 p.m., Miller confirmed that 95% of the fire was contained and

that it had burned 80 acres.

The crews planned to work through night on the hot spots that could

smolder for as long as 24 hours if neglected. Dressed in field coats and

armed with rakes and shovels, the crews lined up on a trail above the

road, lighting backfires to eliminate extra fuel for the fire.

The Fire Authority officially declared the fire 100% contained at 6

a.m., Thursday. However, hand crews planned to work the area until early

afternoon.

The feeling among the residents was one of relief that Wednesday was a

relatively cool day and fire authorities proved to learn quite a few

lessons from the 1993 fires.

“It was very effective fire fighting,” said Charles Quilter, a

resident for 30 years. “They got a hold of it real fast.” But the fire

would serve to heighten everyone’s awareness as Laguna faces a long

summer.

“The Laguna Coast Wilderness park is so dry,” said Mary Fegraus,

executive director of the Laguna Canyon Foundation. “The conditions are

like how it should be at the end of October.”

Although the fire destroyed the primary grazing area for local deer,

she also looked to the positive affects of the fire.

“Coastal Sage habitats respond well to the energy of fire,” she said.

“It releases seeds that have been waiting to sprout sometimes as long as

30 years.”

David Horne, founder of the Greater Laguna Coast Fire Safe Council,

urged residents to volunteer for this summer’s Red Patrol Program to

prevent devastating fires like the one in 1993.

“Our mission is to keep the coastal region fire safe,” he said.

He hopes that with severe drought conditions people will turn out to

help the Laguna Beach Fire Department and the Fire Authority.

Volunteers will simply go out on patrols when the Department of

Forestry declares red flag conditions, which are low humidity and Santa

Ana winds.

Morning traffic flowed down Laguna Canyon Road on Thursday, pausing by

the blackened hill before speeding up to get to offices and summer camps.

Dogs chased each other through the park when fire crews, who had returned

to their stations last night, were ending their shifts.

Proof that Laguna was on its way to normal life but not without the

fear that fire could very well happen again.

“Everyone out here will be the eyes and ears of the fire department,”

said Quilter.

The Red Flag Patrol will hold its training meeting at 9 a.m., June 30

at City Hall Council Chambers. For information, call 494-6220.