Brush Fire Comes Close to Brea Campus
A four-acre brush fire in the Brea hills Friday morning burned to within feet of Brea Olinda High School, forcing evacuation of about 400 students from the east side of the campus.
Principal Doug Kimberly said the students stayed in the gym and performing arts center on the west side of campus for about 45 minutes while firefighters extinguished the flames.
The fire, which began shortly before 11 a.m., was east of the Orange Freeway between Lambert and Tonner Canyon roads and north of the school, said Anna Cave, the emergency preparedness coordinator for the Brea Fire Department.
She said firefighters from the Orange and Los Angeles county fire authorities also helped fight the fire, which slowed traffic on the freeway.
Although the hills behind the school are now blackened, school officials said they feel lucky.
“The fire actually didn’t get to the high school property,” Kimberly said. “For what it was and what it could have been, I was very pleased.”
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