60 M.P.H. Winds Disrupt Power, Traffic, Start Fires

Santa Ana winds gusting up to 60 m.p.h. Thursday blew down power, telephone and cable lines, causing sporadic power outages, igniting fires and playing havoc with traffic signals in cities throughout the county.

More than 30,000 residents were without power during the day, most of them in the central part of the county, a spokesman for Southern California Edison Co. said.

A major disaster was averted about 4:30 p.m. when county firefighters, aided by residents with garden hoses, beat back a fire that destroyed two partially constructed homes in Laguna Niguel and threatened residences in a nearby tract. Embers carried from the construction blaze by the wind touched off minor roof fires on five occupied homes, but none was seriously damaged and no one was injured.

At one point before firefighters arrived on the scene near the intersection of La Paz Road and Crown Valley Parkway, several homeowners scrambled onto burning wood-shingle roofs to extinguish the flames with hoses.

“The embers were falling everywhere from the sky,” neighbor Marty Siegal said.

In Garden Grove, heavy winds blew down a power line in the 10900 block of Penn Avenue, starting a fire that burned through a woodworking shop and lumber-filled warehouse Thursday morning, Garden Grove Fire Chief Lon Cahill said.

Although the blaze was contained in about an hour, it smoldered for at least 6 hours because of high winds and the densely packed lumber, Battalion Chief Vince Bonacker said. About 50 firefighters from four cities battled the blaze, but no one was injured, firefighters said.

In Tustin early Thursday morning, a

power line blew onto a fence, sparking a fire that ignited a house in the 1000 block of Castle Gate Avenue.

A spokeswoman for the County Fire Department said one firefighter was slightly injured in the blaze, which took more than 35 firefighters nearly an hour to control because of the winds. The three people who lived in the house have been lodged in a hotel, Red Cross officials said.

The winds also blew a garbage truck in the Santiago Canyon landfill onto its side, injuring one person inside the truck. The dump was closed for the day and trash haulers were routed to other dumps.

Police in many cities reported that traffic signals had gone haywire because of power outages. In Irvine, police said some signals were facing the wrong directions while others were blinking red. In Santa Ana, police officers were directing traffic at several downtown intersections.

Power outages also left hundreds of Santa Ana Civic Center employees in the dark for about 2 hours Thursday morning and forced the downtown public library to open an hour late.

Cable service in Santa Ana was also disrupted by the heavy winds, a spokeswoman for Comcast Cable said.

Bone-dry hillsides and winds up to 60 m.p.h. prompted officials Thursday morning to declare a “red flag” alert, an intensive fire watch program for all city and county fire departments, law enforcement agencies and power companies. Three special County aire Department strike teams--each with five engines and a battalion chief--were deployed to various points in the county to speed response time in the event of an emergency.

Orange County Fire Capt. Henry Raymond said the alert, normally called during high winds, will continue at least until Saturday, when the winds are expected to die down.

Raymond said one Orange County strike team, consisting of five pieces of firefighting equipment and at least 16 firefighters, was sent to Los Angeles County to staff fire stations whose units had been dispatched to several major fires.

“We’re holding our breath right now because the wind is causing a lot of downed wires, and those things can arc and cause a fire,” Laguna Beach Fire Chief Joseph McClure said.

McClure’s office fielded scores of telephone calls from worried residents who live in the city’s Top of the World area, a coastal hilltop that lost electricity because of downed power lines. The downed lines also shut down electrical water pumps that provide water to residences and fire hydrants.

In Laguna Niguel, Battalion Chief Raymond said that two homes under construction in the 86-home Mandevilla Development caught fire and that winds gusting to 25 m.p.h. carried embers about 200 feet down a steep slope to roofs of four homes on Kings Road and one on Palace Court. Fire officials credited quick-reacting residents with keeping damage to a minimum.

Firefighters said the cause of the blaze is unknown.

Tim and Stacy Wirick, who live about a block away from the fire scene, said the two partially built structures were destroyed in less than 10 minutes.

“It was scary,” said Stacy Wirick, adding that the couple feared a sudden shift in the winds might send the flames toward their home.

Marty Siegal, who lives on Kings Road across from the homes that were damaged, said he was working on his computer with his daughter when he heard what sounded like “firecrackers” going off. When he looked out the front window and saw the flames, he said, it looked like a “bright orange sunset.”

Moments later, he climbed up a stone wall and onto the burning roof of his neighbors’ home to squirt the flames.

Firefighters put out the fire at the construction site within 15 minutes, Raymond said. About 30 firefighters were on the scene, and no one was injured.

At the California Highway Patrol, which had been deluged with calls from motorists complaining about roadway debris, Dispatcher Rick Crow was taking it all in stride.

“We get the reports of the trees falling on the road or on the cars, and we just ship ‘em off to our branch office,” he said.

Times staff writers David Reyes, Richard Beene, Jim Carlton and Steven R. Churm contributed to this story.

Firestorms destroy 22 homes. Part I, Page 1.