Thousands Come Fourth : Holiday: Beautiful weather, the day off, hot dogs, a parade and fireworks drew giant crowds to the county’s coast to mark the nation’s birth.

Flawless blue skies and light ocean breezes drew hundreds of thousands of revelers to Orange County’s coast for Fourth of July festivities Wednesday, snarling traffic for miles into beach communities on a picture-perfect day.

In Newport Beach, traffic backed up for miles, people spilled into the streets and police gave up trying to keep an official crowd count. Officers eventually were forced to close 30 square blocks of the beach area because the crowds and traffic were too much to handle.

“There’s a zillion,” Newport Beach police spokesman Tim Newman said.

But despite the crowds that packed the coastline from Seal Beach to Dana Point, no serious disturbances marred the holiday. Police, however, made numerous arrests for minor traffic violations, broke up occasional fights--sometimes over parking spaces--and confiscated illegal fireworks throughout the day.

The day dawned clear, bringing the crowds out. Public beaches in Dana Point, San Clemente, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach and Seal Beach began filling up early and stayed that way all day. At many state parks, motorists were turned away because the parking lots were full long before noon.

The good weather also drew a record number of people to the annual Huntington Beach Fourth of July parade, which is billed by organizers as the oldest and largest such event in the West. Organizers and police estimated this year’s crowd at between 250,000 and 300,000. The parade has been held every year since 1904.

It was an eclectic group of old and young that gathered for the two-hour parade down Sixth and Main streets. Red, blue and silver stars hung from trees wrapped in crepe paper and front lawns were filled to standing room only.

As the parade inched down Main Street, El Bekal Shriners on motorcycles did careful figure-eights to the cheers and applause of onlookers. Among the most enthusiastic was John Luciw, 42, of Huntington Beach, bearded, shirtless and heavily tattooed, wearing bright red, star-shaped sunglasses and a headband studded with American flags at various angles.

Luciw found the Shriners’ performance no less than a “killer, real killer.”

“You know, like, that’s it,” Luciw explained. “It’s tradition.”

A few blocks farther down Main Street, Brook Sember, a gray-haired woman in a floppy peach hat who gave her age as “sweet 16,” hosted a lawn party that featured a red, white and blue cake. Adorned with Indian face paint, Sember boasted of her “part-Indian, real American” roots, waved a plastic American flag and improvised on a parade song.

“I love a parade,” Sember sang. “I love a parade on Main Street, Huntington Beach--Main Street, U.S.A.”

In Newport Beach, numerous arrests were reported as crowds spilled into the street and police had their hands full controlling a sometimes drunk and disorderly bunch. Offenses ranged from fireworks violations to assaults, a Newport Beach police spokesman said.

More than 30 square blocks of the beach were closed to traffic from mid-afternoon to 3 a.m. today. Police, who had initially intended to close down streets at 4 p.m., started setting up blockades even earlier Wednesday because of the larger-than-anticipated crowds.

“It’s jampacked,” said Don Chandler, watch commander for the Newport Beach Police Department. “It’s wall-to-wall people.”

By early afternoon, traffic into Newport Beach was snarled all the way back into Costa Mesa. And hours earlier, by 8 a.m., every parking place in town was full, and jostling for the ones that opened during the day got rough at times.

One woman, according to police, was brushed by a car driven by an irate driver as she stood in a parking place and tried to save it for someone else. Police responded to the call, but no one was arrested.

Still, for veterans of the Fourth of July festivities in Newport Beach, there were few surprises. “I’ve been here 20 years,” said Chandler, “and it’s like this every year.”

Times staff writers Jim Newton and Danny Sullivan contributed to this story.