Winds whip up fire

A brush fire in Bonita Canyon scorched about 35 acres Monday as Newport Beach and Costa Mesa firefighters battled for nearly two hours to contain the blaze.

Three helicopters, dipping into the conveniently close San Joaquin Reservoir, helped douse the blaze, which started about 3:30 p.m., while firefighters from several cities raced to the canyon as Santa Ana winds powered the flames up the hillside. Authorities contained the blaze about 5:15 p.m. with small spot fires that are expected to be extinguished overnight.

Three hundred residents in the Port Aberdeen, Port Carlisle and Port Durness neighborhoods were evacuated with two homes sustaining minor damage. All residents were allowed back in by 6 p.m., officials said.

Firefighters could not immediately identify the cause of the blaze.

The fire was only one note of the havoc Santa Ana winds wreaked Monday on Orange County.

Gusts upward of 35 mph snapped a power pole on Fairview Road, closing the street to anyone headed toward OCC, Costa Mesa High School or the city’s interior.

Just after 10 a.m. Monday, police received a call from nearby business owners that the power pole on Fairview Road, just south of Baker Street, had snapped and was hanging precariously over their building.

“It was just swaying back and forth. We didn’t realize really how dangerous this was at first,” said Omer Malik, a Shell gas station employee who gawked at the pole with others before police and firefighters shooed them away.

“This is a major danger,” Costa Mesa firefighter Eric Johnson said. “The potential for death is there.”

Firefighters evacuated the businesses in the immediate area, from the Shell gas station to the end of the strip mall parking lot just before the Super Antojitos Mexican restaurant on the west side of the street.

Authorities closed southbound Fairview Road south of Baker Street and portions of Baker Street headed toward the intersection.

Southern California Edison was expected to replace the pole by the end of the day. The snapped pole blacked out 184 homes, company officials said. Homes from Orange to Tustin avenues between Ogle and 16th streets were out of power for a large part of the day, officials said.

“We just thought we’d come out and get some pictures so we can send them to our grandkids who grew up here,” said Jackie Simones, who with her husband, Bob, walked to the area to see what all the fuss was about.

The pole stood out in the landscape down Fairview Road. Along the straight line of electrical power poles on the west side of the street, the snapped one, running more than 60,000 volts of electricity through its wires, leaned far west, looking as if any minute a gust of wind or rumble could send it plummeting down and into the strip mall building it was next to. Fire officials were concerned if it fell, it could pull others down with it. Cars were backed up down the street past the 405 Freeway as drivers were diverted left and right down Baker Street.

Firefighters weren’t just busy with downed power lines Monday, as the Orange County Fire Authority dispatched three strike teams to Los Angeles County to help with the Sesnon Fire, which had burned through 3,000 acres in the Porter Ranch area as of Monday afternoon.

A strike team is a group of more than 20 firefighters and five trucks sent on a mission. They’re generally made up of a few cities contributing men and equipment. Costa Mesa sent two fire trucks and two battalion chiefs to lead separate strike teams to the blaze, with Newport Beach contributing two fire trucks of its own.

A wind advisory for Orange County’s coastal cities remains in effect until noon today.

JOSEPH SERNA may be reached at (714) 966-4619 or at joseph.serna@latimes.com.