Santa Ana Winds Stir Up County : Weather: Fierce, dry gusts spark fires, topple trees and cause power outages to more than 90,000 homes and offices.

Hot, dry Santa Ana winds swept across Orange County on Tuesday, knocking out power briefly to more than 90,000 people, battering homes and businesses, snarling traffic and creating tense moments for firefighters who responded to isolated blazes.

With gusts kicking up to more than 40 m.p.h. in the foothills and canyons, county fire officials declared a “red flag watch.” That meant dispatching more firefighters and equipment than usual to each blaze. And a special strike team was on alert at Irvine Lake in the hills of eastern Orange County, county fire spokeswoman Kathleen Cha said.

“We want to hit any incident very hard and very quickly” to try to extinguish any fire before winds could turn it into a larger, potentially devastating blaze, she said.

Meteorologists predicted that the fierce Santa Ana winds, which arrived later than usual this fall, will ease gradually today and die out by Thursday morning. However, another round of hot, dry winds blowing from the deserts to the sea was expected to hit as early as Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

The first strong Santa Ana condition of the year “started out with a bang, for sure,” said Steve Burback, a meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which provides forecasts for The Times.

At the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station, winds were clocked at 43 m.p.h. in the early afternoon, and a mobile County Fire Department meter recorded gusts of 42 m.p.h. along the Ortega Highway north of San Juan Capistrano. In Santa Ana, winds hit 40 m.p.h., but they topped 50 m.p.h. in some canyon areas, Burback said.

In Anaheim, a wind-related fire damaged three homes before it was contained. City fire officials said a fire broke out about 2 p.m. at a home in the 200 block of Normandy Drive and winds blew hot embers onto several other roofs in the area, threatening to spread the fire throughout the neighborhood. But firefighters were able to control the flames in about an hour, an Anaheim fire official said.

Ten minutes later, a brush fire erupted near Yorba Linda Boulevard and La Palma Avenue in Yorba Linda. Firefighters battled that blaze for an hour before it was extinguished.

There were no serious injuries resulting from either blaze, but estimates of the damage were not immediately available.

More than 90,000 homes and offices suffered brief power losses throughout the Orange County, much of it due to trees and other debris falling on electrical lines, said Criss Brown, a spokeswoman for Southern California Edison.

“Most of the problems with loss of power last only 30 seconds at the most before we can restore power,” Brown said. “Tree limbs are falling all over the place” onto wires.

Voters were pitched into darkness about 1 p.m. at a polling station at Fairhaven Elementary School in Santa Ana, thanks to winds that knocked down power lines.

Winds blew over street signs and snapped tree limbs at numerous spots across the county, causing problems for motorists and keeping California Department of Transportation crews hopping from one call to the next to rid local highways of debris, said Caltrans spokeswoman Maureena Duran-Rojas.

In Huntington Beach, Vance Lent was driving along Warner Avenue on his way to vote when a tree fell on his 1989 Toyota pickup truck, authorities said. Lent was not injured.

On the Costa Mesa Freeway near Katella Avenue in Orange, a large tree fell on a car and blocked three lanes of traffic, the California Highway Patrol said. No one was injured, but the freeway was backed up for at least an hour, said CHP spokesman Speros Doumas.

In Westminster, high winds sent a large tree toppling onto several cars at Park West Park in the 8300 block of McFadden Avenue about 11:30 a.m. One man had to be freed from his car by firefighters, but he was uninjured, Westminster Police Sgt. Don Kerr said.

In La Habra, winds downed traffic signals, creating havoc for drivers in the area near Imperial Highway and Cypress Street, a La Habra police official said.

And in Placentia, a few telephone poles were broken in half by the force of the winds, said Placentia Police Lt. Bob Jones.

In La Palma, a motorist struck a fallen tree at the intersection of La Palma Avenue and Valley View Street, police said. The driver was not injured.

Along the coast, strong winds and waves combined to pull several boats from their moorings, according to U.S. Coast Guard Petty Officer Brenda Toledo. But few boaters had trouble in the water thanks to advance wind warnings.

Strong winds caused major structural damage to at least two homes.

Melanie English, 40, heard a loud booming sound and saw that winds had torn away most of the roof of her two-story home in the 5000 block of Chablis Circle in Irvine. “I’m just glad they said (the skies are) going to be clear for the next couple of days,” she said, gazing at what was left of her roof.

In Anaheim, a 40-year-old pine tree fell across a street along the 700 block of Buttonwood Street, hitting a car and damaging a water line, homeowner John Runion said.

“I think the rain soaked the ground too much and it just fell over,” Runion said.

Times staff writer Greg Hernandez contributed to this report.