Edgy Residents Bracing for Spillover of L.A. Violence : Riots: Alarmed by TV images, hundreds of people flood gun dealers, commuters stay home and business owners close up shop.

Ripples of confusion and disorder spilled into Orange County on Thursday as riots continued to grip Los Angeles one day after the acquittals of police officers accused of beating motorist Rodney G. King.

College students held peaceful protests, grade school teachers comforted concerned pupils and commuters stayed home in droves.

Although authorities said Orange County was conspicuously free of violence or vandalism, the region remained undeniably linked to the tragic events unfolding to the north.

A Santa Ana firefighter who was among more than 200 Orange County fire personnel and 70 sheriff’s deputies dispatched to help in Los Angeles was shot and wounded in the leg Thursday afternoon as he battled one of the scores of blazes ignited by angry mobs. Lenny Edelman, 32, was treated at a Los Angeles hospital and later released.

“Everybody is a little bit jittery,” said Capt. Barry Cupples of the Santa Ana Fire Department.

Alarmed by television images of the riots, hundreds of residents flooded Orange County gun shops Thursday, queuing up to buy arms and ammunition for fear that violence might spread to their neighborhoods. At Turner’s Outdoorsman in Anaheim, the line was 50 people deep.

“I’m just ready for the total breakdown of society,” quipped Mike Walsh, owner of a video business in Anaheim. “I just want to be sure. Anything might happen. You never know. It’s gotten as far south as Long Beach. That’s only two cities over from where I live.”

Lois Lyon, a Buena Park resident in her 60s, bought 200 rounds of ammunition for her two handguns. “I live alone, I’m disabled and, yes, I’m scared,” Lyon said. “I hope I don’t have to use these, but I think anybody who lives alone is scared right now.”

Some residents got a close-up look at the violence simply by going to work.

Robert D. Breton, a Mission Viejo councilman and deputy state attorney, arrived at his downtown Los Angeles office to find “smoke permeating the air and sirens wailing.”

“The streets were strewn with ash and broken glass. Things were deserted, like someone had announced a nuclear attack,” he said. “As I approached my building, several black men, about eight, yelled out, ‘Get back here, honky!’ I ran for my building, and when I turned around, I saw them beating up another man. They were all over him.”

Scores of Orange County businesses were jangled by the events just half an hour’s drive up the freeway in Los Angeles.

Anaheim-based Clothestime shut down 43 Los Angeles stores. Red Robin restaurants, based in Irvine, shuttered two eateries in riot areas. Several Orange County malls closed before dusk, instead of at the customary 9 p.m. The owners of one Santa Ana liquor store were seen carefully pulling bottles from a shelf and putting them in cartons for safe storage from potential looters.

A scheduled appearance by film director Spike Lee at UC Irvine on Thursday night prompted police and university security officers to advise restaurants and clubs near the campus to close by 11 p.m. because of a potential for trouble. “Campus security told us there were threats of people protesting Mr. Lee and other people protesting those people,” Irvine Police Lt. Al Muir said.

Lee’s speech about his upcoming movie on Malcolm X, and a news conference to discuss the King case, were later canceled because traffic delayed his arrival from Los Angeles.

One Orange County resident who decided to avoid commuting to work in Los Angeles was Helen Fritsch of Irvine.

“I watched the fires on TV last night and decided then that I would not go into work this morning,” said Fritsch, who typically takes the train to Los Angeles. “Fortunately, I have an understanding boss.”

Amtrak trains heading into Los Angeles from Orange County carried 20% to 30% fewer passengers than normal. Traffic on the Santa Ana Freeway was remarkably sparse around daybreak, although the freeway lanes grew clogged after 8 a.m. as many commuters headed in after seeing TV reports suggesting that the situation was not as threatening as first feared.

Most of those who went to work ended up leaving early. The 2:45 p.m. Amtrak train, which normally holds about 100 passengers, carried three times as many.

Two Orange County Transit District buses to downtown Los Angeles did not make their scheduled runs due to the curfew there.

At John Wayne Airport, eight planes were delayed Thursday because of smoke-related backups in Southern California’s air-traffic control system. Some passengers were switched from Los Angeles International Airport to flights out of Orange County. The airport was also bracing for flights that might be diverted from LAX because of reports of sporadic gunfire along the landing approach.

Teachers at schools around Orange County, meanwhile, were taking care to explain the events to pupils and quiet their fears.

“The kids are full of questions and full of concerns,” said Dennis Evans, principal at Newport Harbor High School in Newport Beach. “The teachers who can turn it into a lesson are doing that. Others are dealing with youngsters more at the personal, human level.”

At 2,200-student Ocean View High School in Huntington Beach, a fight involving four students--two Vietnamese and two Latino--broke out at lunchtime, apparently caused by “the tensions in the air over the Rodney King incident,” said Principal Carla Rush.

Several Orange County parents of USC students in Los Angeles spent a worrisome day trying to keep in contact. Robert Elston of Irvine reported that his 21-year-old son, Keith, was virtually trapped inside his Phi Delta Theta fraternity house two blocks outside the campus.

Justine Dicesare, an 18-year-old freshman from Corona del Mar, spent the entire day inside her campus dorm. She said a male friend who promised to drive her home had his tires slashed Wednesday night.

“We’re just kind of stuck here,” Dicesare said. “It’s very quiet. We’re the only people from Orange County left here. It’s kind of scary. We don’t know what’s going on here or how close it is to school.”

At UC Irvine, about 500 students of all ethnic backgrounds demonstrated against the King verdicts, marching in a long, snaking line through campus and along nearby streets in the community. Shaking fists in the air, they chanted, “No justice! No peace!” and “Guilty! Guilty! Guilty!”

Although the protesters sympathized with the frustrations that led to looting and other violence in Los Angeles, they expressed a firm belief that peaceful demonstrations remain the best channel.

“They’re reacting out of emotion and anger,” said Darnise R. Williams, 22, who grew up in South Los Angeles and still has family and friends there. “They don’t realize that they are hurting our community.”

Williams said she “sat in front of the television in tears” Wednesday night as she watched angry people breaking windows and beating innocent victims. Walking the shady, peaceful pathways of the Irvine campus while her loved ones were surrounded by turmoil, she was filled with guilt, Williams said.

Meanwhile, a spontaneous rally drew more than 200 students at Saddleback College, a school that has been polarized by several racial incidents in past months.

Although there were a few angry, finger-jabbing confrontations between King supporters and students who approved of Wednesday’s court decision, most of the students who gathered on a grassy, tree-lined square cried loudly for peace.

Times staff writers Leslie Berkman, Susan Christian, Vivien Chen, Donnette Dunbar, Catherine Gewertz, Thuan Le, Davan Maharaj, Jeffrey Perlman and Chris Woodyard and correspondents Len Hall, Terry Spencer and Helaine Olen contributed to this report.