O.C. Fire May Be Arson

The day after a fierce brush fire threatened million-dollar homes in south Orange County, crews doused hot spots while arson investigators combed the area where the blaze started.

As residents cleaned up ash and soot Tuesday, they expressed gratitude to the firefighters who saved 700 homes in the area and to a brush-clearing project that officials said held the flames at bay. They expressed shock and anger at reports that the blaze may have been set.

“If this resulted from arson, somebody needs to get their bell rung,” homeowner Craig Tilmont said.

Investigators said the blaze appeared to have several starting points along Antonio Parkway across from the Tijeras Creek Golf Club in Las Flores. Yet to be determined is whether the fires were set, and if so, whether by more than one person, said Dennis Shell, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Authority. Late Tuesday, he said, no suspects had been identified in an incident that could have been far worse.

“If we had wind on this fire, there’s a ... potential that [it] would have been really, really bad,” Shell said.

About 70 firefighters remained on the job Tuesday in the hills above Rancho Santa Margarita, while helicopters dumped water on parts of the scorched 1,100 acres inaccessible from the ground. Officials said they expect to finish the job by this afternoon.

Residents got much of the credit for averting disaster. Besides installing fireproof roofs and planting greenbelt vegetation, Shell said, they had recently cleared debris and brush from a 150-foot perimeter around their houses. Some of that work was part of a homeowners association project completed just three days before the fire.

“There was no dried-out vegetation or piles of lumber around the homes,” Shell said. “They were wonderfully defended, and it was a real big help to us.”

Though the smell of smoke still wafted down streets Tuesday, the sense of relief was palpable.

Outside her house on Sundown Drive in Rancho Santa Margarita, Christina Law hosed down windows while her young son and daughter played in the green backyard that contrasted sharply with the blackened hillside only a few feet away. As Law mopped up, she wondered aloud how she was going to get the smell of smoke out of the house.

“I forgot to close one window when I evacuated, and that was all it took,” she said.

When she saw the flames top the ridge at the end of her street Monday afternoon, Law said, she grabbed her daughter and a few photos, then fled. Her husband was at work and her son in preschool.

“The fire was coming in so fast,” she said. “That’s all I had time to do. As I drove away I saw the helicopter flying over the street, carrying water.”

On nearby Apache Drive, Tilmont and his neighbor Geoff Ward were trying to figure out how to remove stains left by the red fire retardant that splashed on their houses when a plane dumped it on a nearby hill.

Tilmont’s house is for sale, and a potential buyer came by Tuesday morning to inspect it.

Though the home was not damaged, Tilmont said, the buyer had second thoughts.

But because the fire has already burned away the brush, “this area is safe from fire for the next 10 years,” he said. “It’s probably the safest place in the entire county now.”

Tilmont said he was home sick Monday when he smelled smoke. He opened the garage door and saw smoke rising over the ridge at the end of the street.

He awakened his sleeping daughter, put her and the family dog in the car, grabbed a few photo albums and took off. The family stayed with friends Monday night.

Ward said he never left home. He stayed in the backyard with a garden hose, wetting down trees to prevent them from catching fire. He was outside when a plane dropped fire retardant on the house and hillside behind it.

“I was covered in red jelly, and the sidewalk and driveway were covered by about a quarter-inch of the stuff,” Ward said. “But that pilot saved my house.”

Los Angeles firefighter Dave Lucas found himself at the receiving end of his colleagues’ services Monday.

He was battling a house fire in South Central Los Angeles when a fellow firefighter told him he had a message from his wife.

“Joanna had called to say there was a fire in my backyard and to get home right away,” Lucas said.

He rushed home to Rancho Santa Margarita, but officials would not let him get near his house--even when he flashed his firefighter’s badge.

“I was concerned,” he said, “but there were a lot of fire engines in the neighborhood. I was confident that the firefighters had the situation in hand.”

Joanna Lucas expressed disgust that the fire may have been started deliberately.

“It’s a pretty sick person that does something like that,” she said. “Whoever did this has my 5-year-old daughter very scared.”