Santiago fire jumps toll road

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Bone-dry conditions and gusting winds caused the Santiago Canyon fire in Orange County to intensify this morning. It quickly blackened thousands of acres of hillside and brush.

Breaks such as highways that usually slow a fire’s progress were meaningless, said Capt. Joe Brock of the Orange County Fire Authority.

‘With this wind, you can have spotting a half a mile away,’ he said. ‘The 241 [toll road] didn’t even slow it down.”

A vast swath of hills above Portola Parkway was scorched. Nearby, all that remained of a dozen landscaping trucks that had been moved to a dirt road in the Irvine Ranch Land Conservancy for safekeeping were melted tires and charred frames.

-- Mike Anton