Countywide : Winds, Dry Weather Trigger Fire Alert

High Santa Ana winds and low humidity Wednesday prompted the Orange County Fire Department to declare the year’s first red flag fire alert.

“We’re in the fire season, so we expect these kinds of things to happen,” said Emmy Day, a public information officer for the department. “All of this stuff is well planned in advance so, in a sense, even though conditions have changed, it’s business as usual.”

As part of the alert, Day said, the Fire Department dispatched two special patrols--one to the Riverside Freeway near the border with Riverside County and the other to the canyon area of Santiago Canyon Road--consisting of department personnel especially trained in wild-land management and fire prevention.

“That gives us extra sets of eyes out there to report any indications of fire,” she said. “We also hope that the patrols will act as a deterrent to anybody who might be thinking that this might be a good time to set a fire.”

In addition, Day said, the department formed two strike teams consisting of five fire engines each, which are stationed at firehouses near John Wayne Airport and on Santiago Canyon Road near Irvine Lake.

“They will be ready to go out should anything occur,” she said.

Finally, the department is dispatching extra fire engines to all structural fire calls for the duration of the alert.

By Wednesday afternoon, Day said, those calls had not exceeded their usual number.

The red flag alert was declared early Wednesday when winds reached 37 m.p.h. with gusts in some areas as high as 64, Day said. At the same time, she said, relative humidity dropped to 15%.

Red flag alerts--which occur several times a year--are declared when wind speeds exceed 25 m.p.h. and/or humidity drops to 15% or less. Such an alert was in effect last fall when the Laguna Canyon fire began, Day said.

Although officials were not overly concerned Wednesday about the possibility of fire, Day said, continuing hazardous wind and humidity conditions this year have prompted them to prolong the official fire season, which usually ends in December.

The department was to check conditions again late Wednesday night to determine whether the fire alert would continue.

A meteorologist with WeatherData Inc., which issues forecasts for The Times, predicted hazardous conditions for at least two more days, with winds decreasing and humidity increasing through the weekend.