Weather Befriends Firefighters in Vanquishing Chino Hills Blaze

Light winds mixed with high humidity and scattered showers helped firefighters gain the upper hand on a fast-moving brush fire Friday that had raged out of control in the hilly countryside between Yorba Linda and the San Bernardino County line.

The fire, the second to burn through the environmentally sensitive area in less than three weeks, charred more than 6,500 acres of state parkland, fire officials said.

“It’s pretty much under control,” Orange County Fire Department spokeswoman Maria Sabol said. “It’s going nowhere now.”

With mop-up procedures well under way, most of the 700 firefighters who were called in to battle the blaze were released back to their stations, Sabol said.

About 150 firefighters were left to monitor and attack the numerous hot spots that remain, Sabol said. They are expected to stay at the fire scene at least through today.

Firefighters got a quicker-than-expected handle on the blaze, which swept across acres of tinder-dry sagebrush, grass and scrub oak, thanks to an unusually high level of humidity that blanketed much of Southern California overnight.

Scattered sprinkles in the area Friday also served to quench the flames that on Thursday bounded across the rural territory at speeds estimated to be more than 25 m.p.h.

By early Friday morning, fire officials declared the blaze 95% contained and began sending home weary firefighters who had worked throughout the night battling the stubborn fire.

“We’ve got it surrounded, but there are occasional flare-ups, and we’ll be controlling it for a few days,” Orange County Fire Capt. Dan Young said as he surveyed the scorched hillside.

Still, a blanket of smoke hovered above Yorba Linda and surrounding areas for most of Friday, extending for more than five miles in all directions. Steaming ash covered thousands of acres of hillside in Soquel Canyon, where most of the flames were concentrated.

The Chino Hills fire was the second in recent weeks in the area. On June 27, fire consumed 6,600 acres in nearby Carbon Canyon off Carbon Canyon Road, a bucolic country roadway that environmental activists are attempting to have designated as a scenic highway in an effort to preserve the pristine area from development.

“Essentially, Soquel Canyon now looks like Carbon Canyon, where we had the fire a few weeks ago,” said David Miller, president of the Chino Hills Land Conservancy. “It’s a really nice area out here, and it’s a shame that it’s all burned.”

The blaze was started accidentally by a 15-year-old boy playing with a model rocket near his home in Yorba Linda, on the southwestern corner of the park, authorities said. The youth, who was not identified because he is a minor, apparently launched the rocket into a highly flammable grassy area that soon exploded into flames. Fueled by moderate winds, the flames quickly spread north.

The boy suffered minor burns to his legs trying to extinguish the fire, then ran to a telephone and dialed 911, fire officials said. Although he apparently did not start the fire deliberately, he will likely be held liable for the tremendous expense of the firefighting effort, which could exceed $1 million per day, authorities said.

Under state law, because the youth is underage, authorities may seek to recoup the costs from his parents. Officials were unsure how many people in the past have been forced to pay for fires they started.

The fire broke out about 12:40 p.m. Thursday near Blue Gum and Ridge Crest drives and raced toward the San Bernardino County line. Fire crews from the U.S. Forestry Service, San Bernardino County, Brea, Santa Ana and Anaheim were called in to assist the Orange County Fire Department.

Four prison-inmate firefighters were injured, three of them impaired by smoke inhalation as they labored to dig trenches along the perimeter of the fire.

A fourth inmate, whose name was being withheld, broke his arm after slipping some 75 feet down a canyon wall, Young said. Firefighters spent more than 1 1/2 hours attempting to rescue the injured man, finally hauling him out of the ravine in a metal basket. All four inmates were treated at area hospitals and returned to jail.

The only structure damaged by the fire was an unoccupied shack, firefighters said.