Fires Hit Houses and Apartments : Weather: Residents displaced in Anaheim, Santa Ana. High winds prompt firefighter alert.

Firefighters throughout the county remained on high alert late Thursday night as winds whipped through the area and fires struck apartments and houses, displacing people in Anaheim and Santa Ana.

Late Thursday, a four-alarm fire broke out in a two-story Anaheim apartment complex in the 1200 block of State College Boulevard, and firefighters had to rescue and evacuate residents by ladders from roofs and balconies and by cutting through walls.

The Red Cross was called in to house those who escaped the blaze at Chaparral Apartments, a six-building complex.

Residents said the fire broke out at 9:43 p.m. in one of the larger buildings.

“I saw a lot of flames coming out of the building,” said Dean Karches, who lives in the building. “There was a lot of smoke and I had to get down,” he said, making a crouching motion.

Duncan Albright, who lives in the next building, said firefighters had to rescue at least four people from a second-floor balcony.

“We were screaming ‘Fire!’ and there were people who still didn’t know, people who were still asleep and didn’t know their building was on fire.”

Albright said he saw one resident kick in a woman’s door because she was afraid to open it.

Jon Lutz, 20, a car detailer, said that a little after 10 p.m., “we started to hear chain saws and we were wondering what was going on.”

He went outside his apartment and encountered firefighters who told him to get out.

Lutz and his wife, Victoria, 22, and their daughter, Chelsea, 2, evacuated, along with about 100 other residents, many of whom stood shivering in the cold, clad in pajamas and borrowed blankets.

Another resident, Tony Zimmerman, 44, said: “Everything was smoke, just thick smoke. There were no flames inside my apartment, but God, the smoke was everywhere, everywhere. But I feel OK, I’m safe.”

The fire was controlled within an hour, according to Steve Magliocco, division chief of the Anaheim Fire Department. Two residents were treated for smoke inhalation.

In all, about 24 apartments were damaged in the 110-unit complex. The cause of the fire was unknown, Magliocco said.

In Santa Ana, a wind-whipped fire caused by a power line rubbing against a palm tree destroyed the roofs of two houses and damaged other properties.

The fire, which began at 6 p.m., was fueled by Santa Ana winds of up to 25 m.p.h.

“All day long, I’ve been waiting for this and hoping it wouldn’t come,” said Santa Ana Fire Department Battalion Chief Tom Skelly, whose department, along with the rest of Orange County’s fire agencies, went on “red alert” emergency status Thursday because of the powerful winds. “Combustible roofs and winds are the things that cause a fire to spread. We’re lucky this fire did not spread any farther than it did.”

Fire dispatchers received a 911 call from John McCann in the 2000 block of North Freeman Street, who reported a bush burning in his back yard. McCann, 57, had been watching television, he said, when he smelled smoke.

“I looked out the back window and I saw, out against the fence, a bush was on fire,” McCann said Thursday night as firefighters doused his roof. “I called 911 and by the time I got off, the garage was on fire.”

McCann was able to drive his pickup truck out of the garage before the fire engulfed it.

The fire soon spread to the house roof and then to the roof next door. Embers hop-scotched to the roofs of other homes and sparked some hot spots, but they were quickly doused by homeowners and neighbors with water hoses, fire officials said.

About 40 firefighters responded to the fire and were able to save much of the contents of McCann’s home, including a truck loaded with Christmas presents his wife had finished wrapping during the day. No one was injured.

“With the way the wind was blowing all day, we were very lucky,” McCann said.

Skelly said the wind “was the same kind of condition that burned Laguna Beach, and it can happen in Santa Ana just like in Laguna.”

The Santa Ana winds also caused sporadic power outages in various cities, leaving 8,000 county residents without electricity.

At their peak, according to National Weather Service, wind gusts reached 45 to 60 m.p.h. in canyon areas and 30 m.p.h. in Santa Ana and at John Wayne Airport. Flights were not disrupted, the Federal Aviation Administration said.

By Thursday evening, the winds had decreased to 15-25 m.p.h. in the county, according to WeatherData, which provides forecasts for The Times. Winds are expected to continue decreasing this afternoon before picking up again at night in canyon areas.

In addition to going on Red Alert status Thursday, the Orange County Fire Department mobilized a strike team of five engines and crews, plus a battalion chief, based at Station 15 on Santiago Canyon Road, spokeswoman Emmy Day said. The county also deployed patrols along the Artesia Freeway, in canyon areas especially, and along Santiago Canyon Road.

By 10:30 a.m., the winds began to blow down power lines and cause sporadic electrical outages, according to Criss Brown, a regional analyst at Southern California Edison’s storm center. Most of the power losses took place in the central part of the county, Brown said, and were brief, lasting from half a minute to two hours.

Elsewhere in the county, the wind caused minor damage ranging from fallen traffic signs and trees to trash cans skittering down alleys.

Just before lunchtime, vendors at the Orange County Fairgrounds in Costa Mesa dodged collapsing metal stall awnings. In Brea, a dangling, out-of-service traffic light at the intersection of Lambert Road and Brea Boulevard disrupted traffic.