It’s heartbreaking to see the charred remains of multimillion-dollar homes in Southern California fires and the piles of smoldering ash left behind in the wake of the devastating wildfire that broke out on Wednesday night.
As of Thursday morning, the wind-driven wildfire in the affluent Laguna Niguel area had destroyed at least 24 homes and consumed 200 acres, forcing the evacuation of 900 residents as county officials declared a state of emergency.
On Wednesday afternoon, at around 2:45 pm, an unidentified fire broke out near a water treatment plant between Laguna Niguel and Laguna Beach before rapidly spreading. Then came the harrowing images of destroyed mansions, with smoke still billowing out of the scene.
On Thursday, the number of acres burned by the fire had not increased since Wednesday night, according to a press conference by fire officials. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.
There was an injury to a firefighter during the brush fire, according to fire officials. As the flames engulfed entire neighborhoods, there were no immediate reports of injuries.
Orange County Fire Authority Assistant Chief TJ McGovern said at the press conference that “We have damage inspection teams out … they’re out evaluating the damaged homes that we have in the community.” Investigators are currently looking into the cause of the blaze.
Residents of Coronado Pointe Drive, Vista Court, and Via Las Rosas were ordered to evacuate, according to KABC. It is estimated that about 100 homes are located in those areas.
Fire Authority Chief Brian Fennessy said late Wednesday that at least 20 homes had been destroyed in the blaze, which had been burning for several days.
According to Fennessy, “You’ve got to remember that this fire was wind-driven.”
“We have embers cast very deep down into those canyons, many of them up into those palm trees. We had embers in our attic spaces, through vents,” the man said.
As a result, “the focus is to get into these homes and to really take a look into those attics, to get down in the vegetation, to really make sure we’re not leaving any hot embers in place,” the chief stated.
Jennifer McCoy, a Laguna Beach resident, told CNN that she first noticed smoke coming from the neighboring Laguna Niguel neighborhood around 4:15 p.m.
It was only after two hours that she made her way down to the shopping center below and noticed that the smoke had grown two to three times larger than it had before.
To put out the flames, firefighters used water from a pond at the El Niguel Country Club, Laguna Niguel, CNN reports. Fennessy said during a press conference that the fire was made worse by the combination of high winds and low humidity.
A fire like this is going to become more commonplace because the fuel beds in this county, Southern California, and the West are so dry, he said. California fires like this would have been put out a long time ago if they had occurred five or ten years ago.
The rapid spread of the flames from a nearby lookout point prompted the evacuation of another Laguna Niguel resident, Allan Aguilera, and his family.
As soon as we got to the top, we could see the full scope of the fire, as well as how quickly it was spreading,” he said on CNN. Before the winds changed and started pushing the flames closer, there were a lot of people who were doing the same.” As a result, we made the decision to leave and begin preparing for the possibility of an evacuation.
It was tense, but we maintained our composure, collected our most valuable possessions, and escaped unscathed.” Aguilera said the group evacuated early to avoid any possible traffic jams if the worst-case scenario occurred.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration meteorologists predict a “prolonged, persistent drought in the West where precipitation below average is most likely,” the agency said in March.