O.C. fire roars amid heat and strong winds

Amid record-breaking heat, extremely low humidity and strong Santa Ana winds, a brush fire swept across the tinder-dry Anaheim Hills and Orange areas Sunday, charring more than 2,000 acres and prompting the evacuation of more than 1,200 people.

The winds -- in what is shaping up as one of the driest years ever in Southern California -- fed flames that destroyed one structure and damaged three more, including two homes.

The blaze was triggered before 8 a.m. by a fire that began in a car that, for undetermined reasons, wound up in a roadside ditch. The fire continued burning into the evening, with 30% containment reported about 9 p.m.

More than 800 firefighters battled the flames, which at midafternoon darkened the skies over much of north Orange County with towering black columns of smoke.

One of the firefighters’ key adversaries was Sunday’s scorching heat. Temperatures hit record highs for a March 11 at many spots in the Southland, including a midafternoon 97-degree reading in nearby Fullerton, making it the nation’s hot spot for the day. Fullerton’s previous record high of 84 was set in 1959.

The heat was so intense that it was too much even for some of the tens of thousands of Southern Californians who flocked to the region’s beaches.

“They’re getting flushed. They’re getting pink. They’re getting sweaty,” said Dan Atkins, a lifeguard captain at Zuma Beach in Malibu.

National Weather Service forecasters predicted no more than slight cooling in the fire area today. Temperatures are expected to approach or exceed record highs in parts of the Southland, with the mercury reaching the high 80s or low 90s.

A red flag warning, based on the forecast of more brisk winds and single-digit humidity, was issued.

“This is classic Santa Ana fire season, and it’s exacerbated because everything is so crispy because it’s been such a dry winter,” said William Patzert, a climatologist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge. “It’s definitely scary.”

The blaze was sparked when a car with stolen license plates was apparently moved off the 241 toll road at the Windy Ridge toll plaza in an unincorporated area near Orange.

Authorities said it appeared that the car was moved into thick brush and that the fire was then either set by whoever abandoned the vehicle or was ignited by the vehicle’s catalytic converter. “I don’t know how they got down in there, but it was a well-planned spot in my opinion,” said Capt. Stephen Miller of the Orange County Fire Authority.

Arson investigators were dispatched to the scene, but authorities said they did not know if the blaze had been deliberately set.

The blaze -- named the Windy Ridge fire -- quickly scaled the ridge and destroyed dozens of acres near the toll road. By noon, as winds gusted and temperatures steadily rose, the fire was threatening enough for authorities to begin evacuating the residents of more than 500 homes.

By 10 p.m., most of the evacuees were allowed to return to their homes.

“The winds have laid down, and the fire is lying down,” Capt. Ian MacDonald of the Orange Fire Department said.

Officials said earlier in the day that they were stunned by how quickly the fire spread, forcing the evacuations of hundreds of residents.

“It is just amazing that it can grow so fast,” Battalion Chief Ed Fleming of the Orange County Fire Authority said.

One of those who fled was Theresa Sears, 51, a longtime resident of Orange Park Acres, an equestrian community at the edge of Orange.

“I smelled smoke about 8 o’clock in the morning, and we started taking the horses out about 10 in the morning,” she said. “All my friends came and helped me so I could stay in my house. We loaded up the horses. We loaded up the goats. We loaded up the chickens, the dogs and the cats.”

Sears stayed put until about 1 p.m. But, with firefighters nearby, she said, “They didn’t have to tell me to leave. The flames were so severe I knew it was time to go.” Her home, however, was coated with foam by firefighters and saved.

Most of the people living along Santiago Creek were ordered to evacuate Sunday afternoon, but some stayed home to keep an eye on the fire themselves.

Even after authorities had blocked off roads near his Mabury Ranch neighborhood in Orange, defense contractor Vern Green, 58, sneaked behind law enforcement lines to pack up his things.

“When they tap into the fire hydrant by my house, that’s our signal to leave,” Green said.

Authorities said the two damaged houses appeared to be the only ones in the area with wood-shake roofs. Neither, officials said, was seriously damaged.

But one structure, possibly a corral, was destroyed, and another outbuilding was damaged.

Miller said two firefighters, the only people hurt, suffered minor injuries. He offered no prediction as to when the fire would be fully contained.

Weather records were being set all over Orange County. Yorba Linda reached 95 degrees, 11 degrees above the record for the day; the Santa Ana fire station near John Wayne Airport reached 92 degrees, versus the normal high of 66 degrees.

Single-digit humidity levels compared to a norm of around 40% to 50% this time of year, officials said.

Firefighters were also frustrated by winds blowing steadily at 29 mph and gusting up to 49 mph. Authorities at the fire scene said humidity fell to 9%, while weather officials reported that humidity in Fullerton dipped to as low as 4%.

In Los Angeles County, temperatures were 20 to 25 degrees above normal. The county’s hottest weather was in Long Beach, which reached 94 degrees, surging past the former high of 87 degrees set in 1959. Downtown posted a high of 92, only one degree below its record high.

Elsewhere, Southern California residents who started the morning by fast-forwarding to daylight saving time relished a day that felt more like June than mid-March.

Crowds soaked in the sun all along the Southern California coast.

“People are surfing, skin diving, just hiking over the rocks -- anything you can think of today,” lifeguard Atkins said.

At neighborhood coffeehouses, baristas retooled quickly from extra-hot cinnamon lattes to ice-blended coffee drinks.

“Today, we were selling iced banana mochas like they were going out of style,” said Mike Sheldrake, owner of Polly’s Gourmet Coffee in the Belmont Shore area of Long Beach.

Boaters who flocked to the nearby Alamitos Bay Yacht Club had seen the balmy weather coming for days.

Sailors keep close track of such things, said club secretary Dan DeLave.

“Right now at the club it’s probably 80 degrees. It’s beautiful,” DeLave said in the late afternoon.

Home gardeners took advantage of the heat by visiting area nurseries to snatch up six-packs of hot-weather plants like marigolds and petunias to replace cool-weather pansies.

“They’re coming in by the carload,” said Robert Kitano, store manager of Armstrong Garden Center in Pasadena.

Smaller fires broke out elsewhere in the region. Most were quickly put out.

In Riverside County near Corona, a Sunday afternoon brush fire flared to 500 acres in the hilly terrain around the wildlife habitat of Lake Mathews Reserve. It was 25% contained by 9 p.m.

One hundred firefighters labored to contain the blaze, dubbed the Sierra fire. No homes were threatened or roads closed, said Capt. Julie Hutchinson of the Riverside County Fire Department.

“Until we get that line all the way around it, there’s still that potential” to spread, Hutchinson said.

Weather forecasters have said that this unusually long fire season probably will continue, in large part because of the dry conditions.

Only about 2.40 inches of rain had fallen on downtown Los Angeles since July 1, and forecasters say no sign of rain is in sight.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s weather models suggest that a La Nina climate pattern -- an abnormal cooling of water temperatures in the equatorial Pacific -- is emerging, continuing the drought-like conditions.

janet.wilson @latimes.com

david.haldane@latimes.com

greg.krikorian@latimes.com

*

Times staff writers Stuart Silverstein, William Heisel, Howard Blume, Deborah Schoch, Susannah Rosenblatt and Adrian G. Uribarri contributed to this report

*

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)

97:

The temperature in Fullerton, making it the nation’s hot spot for the day

4%:

The estimated humidity, accompanied by Santa Ana winds

500

Number of homes evacuated

--

Source: Times reporting