Firefighters try to keep blaze from jumping counties

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Cleveland National Forest:

Fueled by dry shrubs and trees, the Santiago fire raged into the rugged Cleveland National Forest this afternoon, burning up the slopes of the Santa Ana Mountains and threatening to cross over to Riverside County.

As onshore winds pushed a wall of black smoke over the mountains and into Riverside County, firefighters were considering building a firebreak by using bulldozers to link the various mountain roads in the area.

‘We still haven’t been able to take the offensive, but we’re hoping to do so today,’ said Louis Sandoval, with the Southwest Area Incident Management Team.

Firefighters in eastern Orange County today had so far kept the 25,000-acre fire from reaching homes in Trabuco and Live Oak canyons, the most endangered communities. In nearly deserted Trabuco Canyon, a dozen fire engines took positions, ready for battle.

Buck Wickham, operations chief with the Orange County Fire Authority, called Trabuco and Live Oak canyons ‘a box of matches ready to go.’

Fire officials said Modjeska Canyon appeared safe for now, but that Silverado Canyon and its 700 homes were ‘far from being out of the woods.’

Crews said they were being helped by several factors, including lower temperatures, higher humidity, onshore winds, more personnel, 10 helicopters and four water-dropping airplanes.

About 1,100 firefighters are now fighting the Santiago blaze, nearly double the staffing of earlier this week. More than 200 of them, along with bulldozer teams, are trying to shore up a firebreak near the ridgeline that separates Orange and Riverside counties. They are working to clear a stretch of eight to 10 miles on a fire road built in the 1930s. If the flames jump the break, firefighters said, the blaze could threaten the community of Lake Elsinore.

‘We’ve never sent a fire to Riverside County yet,’ said Rick Reeder, battalion chief with the Fire Authority.

Meanwhile, Orange County authorities appealed to the public to help them catch the arsonist who set the fire Sunday evening near Santiago Canyon and Silverado Canyon roads. Officials were offering a $150,000 reward for information that leads to a conviction.

‘The FBI will bring to bear all of its national resources ... to make sure that we track, apprehend and put this person or persons behind bars where they belong,’ said FBI Special Agent Herb Brown.

The FBI has 20 agents working on the case. The agency and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and Explosives will employ cause and origin experts and behavioral scientists.

‘We’ve had 250 tips,’ Sheriff Michael S. Carona said. ‘None have led to anybody we believe to be the suspect in this case.’

The fire started on the Irvine side of Santiago Canyon Road at 6 p.m. Sunday. Though officials previously said there were three points of origin, today they said there were only two.

Within 15 minutes of the report of the fire, the blaze had spread three miles, officials said.

‘The person or people who did this are exceptionally lucky or they have some knowledge of when they can do the most damage when you set a fire,’ Fire Authority Chief Chip Prather said.

The Santiago fire grew rapidly yesterday, with officials reporting last night that they had lost ground and that containment had fallen to 30% from 50%, firefighters’ victories in hemming it in undone. The number of homes destroyed stood at 14. Modjeska Canyon suffered the brunt of the destruction.

Phil Buller, a veteran firefighter with Station 16 in the canyon, said this morning that the hillsides had ‘all burned, but no more homes had been lost.’

A CHP officer stopped motorists on Santiago Canyon Road this morning and said the FBI was not allowing anyone through.

Though many residents of Live Oak Canyon had been evacuated, there were some holdouts, including Bob Heerdt, 73. He has lived for nearly three decades on a sprawling estate at the corner of Hunky Dory and Rinky Dink, two modest canyon roads. His land is dotted with rusted farm equipment, appliances, a 50-foot sailboat he had hoped to restore when he bought it in 1976, and tall oaks that form a canopy over the property.

‘I won’t see this taken away from me,’ he said Wednesday. ‘I’m like a good captain. I’m going down with the ship.’

All schools were closed today in the Capistrano and Saddleback districts, as were Silverado Elementary near the fires and several private schools. All Irvine schools will be closed tomorrow. The South Orange County Community College District canceled classes at its three campuses until Monday. High school football games and other athletic events have also been called off through Monday, and Yorba Linda’s Fiesta Days has been canceled.

--Seema Mehta