Fire Chars 40 Acres of Brush East of San Juan

Orange County’s first major brush fire of the season charred about 40 acres east of San Juan Capistrano Wednesday, burning through steep terrain and rugged brushlands before being brought under control.

There were no injuries in the fire, which was fought by air tankers, bulldozers, hand crews and more than 200 firefighters. By 3:30 p.m., firefighters had the blaze 95% under control, officials said.

Although the blaze was headed north toward 12 cabins at San Juan Hot Springs just inside the Cleveland National Forest, the structures were never in any danger, said Craig Kinoshita, a spokesman for the county Fire Department.

County fire officials stressed that the blaze was not caused by a prescribed fire set earliear in the day. The prescribed burning, aimed at clearing dry vegetation that could fuel future fires, was set four to five miles from the site of the main brush fire by Orange County firefighters, Kinoshita said.

“At first we thought the two fires were related, but now there’s every indication that they weren’t,” said Capt. Joe Kerr. With a light breeze of eight to 10 m.p.h., it is even less likely that both fires were related, he added.

Kerr said the blaze, which started along Ortega Highway near Verdugo Canyon Road, may have been caused by a motorist tossing something out of a window that ignited the fire. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

“The irony is that we were having a hard time getting that stuff lit,” Kerr said, referring to the prescribed fire.

Six units, a bulldozer and a crew of 16 firefighters put out the prescribed fire and then fought the main brush fire, which started at about 11:45 a.m., Kerr said.

A few campers were in Caspers Regional Park, southwest of the hot springs on the Ortega Highway, but they were never in danger, Kinoshita said.

With 90-degree temperatures and 42% relative humidity, the blaze had the potential to develop into a much larger one, Kerr said. The fire kept refueling itself as it traveled uphill from the highway, he added.

“The fire had no other way to go,” Kerr said. “We got fairly lucky.”

Four air tankers of the California Department of Forestry, a U.S. Forest Service helicopter, three hand crews, three water tenders and two bulldozers aided firefighters in battling the blaze, officials said.

Also, the California Highway Patrol set up two roadblocks on Ortega Highway, a CHP spokesman said.

Last August, a brush fire destroyed 100 acres in the Cleveland National Forest, where fire crews encountered rugged terrain similar to that in Wednesday’s fire. In September, another 35 acres burned near a neighborhood in San Juan Capistrano, but it was stopped before it reached homes and horses.