Fire crews labor to battle blaze in Talbert Park fueled not by wind but heavy brush

Fire crews from Costa Mesa, Huntington Beach, Newport Beach and the Orange County Fire Authority worked Monday to extinguish a Talbert Regional Park fire fueled not by wind but by heavy brush that extended dousing efforts, officials reported.

Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue Capt. Joe Noceti confirmed his department received a call shortly before 6:30 a.m. on Labor Day from someone near a southern portion of the park, by the Banning Ranch area, who’d seen smoke. Responders arriving to the scene saw a blaze roughly 3,600 square feet in size.

“It was slow moving because there was no wind,” Noceti said Tuesday. “There was a lot of brush though, a lot to fuel the fire.”

Firefighters created a hose line using approximately 1,200 feet of hosing to reach the area where the fire had broken out, while OCFA’s Copter 2 battled flames from above with water drops.

Noceti estimated it took crews about 45 minutes to extinguish the fire but, due to the build up of brush, personnel remained on scene with hoses for the next five hours to ensure all hotspots had been eliminated.

“We were there until noon putting a line around it and making sure all the small spots were put out,” said Noceti, who took photographs of the fire fight and posted images to social media on Monday.

“It was a pretty good-sized fire,” he continued. “We were lucky the winds weren’t up or else it would have spread further.”

Noceti said Tuesday the cause of the fire was still being investigated by the Newport Beach Police Department, though the land itself falls under the jurisdiction of the OC Parks.

No injuries were reported from the scene, and no one was located on the property at the time of the fire, the fire captain added.

Firefighters on Tuesday ran 1,200 feet of hose line into Talbert Park to battle a brush fire that broke out after 6 a.m.

(Courtesy of Costa Mesa Fire & Rescue)

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