SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. — Evacuation orders for the Norte Fire came off in stages on Saturday, letting residents of this city and neighboring San Clemente start heading home to neighborhoods where at least six homes had been damaged or destroyed.
Greg Barta, a public information officer with the Orange County Fire Authority, said crews would “continue to attack the fire and work towards getting residents home as soon as it’s safe to do so.” Robert Morris, who has lived in the area since 1995, was quoted by CBS Los Angeles saying it was the first time “we’ve really ever had a fire in this area,” and calling it “a wake-up call.”
The orders lifted around 6 p.m. covered San Juan Capistrano Zones 4 and 5 and San Clemente Zone 12, after Zones 10 and 13 in San Juan Capistrano were cleared earlier in the day. Via La Mirada was to remain closed north of Esperanza to all traffic except emergency vehicles. CBS Los Angeles gave no count of people affected, while Xinhua put the number under evacuation orders at roughly 16,000 as of Saturday without saying who counted.
The fire was first reported around 11:30 a.m. Friday and had burned about 570 acres by that night. Containment reached 25 percent by Saturday evening, CBS Los Angeles reported, up from the 5 percent the authority posted on X that morning. Two firefighters were hospitalized with significant injuries; one has since been released, while the other is doing “very good,” Capt. Steve Concialdi of the authority said. No civilians were injured.
The Norte Fire was one of four active in Southern California on Saturday, Xinhua reported. The largest, the Henderson Fire on Camp Pendleton in San Diego County, had burned 3,132 acres. Xinhua’s tally put the Bryson Fire in Malibu at 147 acres and 52 percent contained, and the Peak Fire in Los Angeles County at 43 acres and 41 percent. The numbers do not always agree: Cal Fire’s incident page for Henderson logged 35 percent containment in a 5:40 p.m. update, yet its summary box, last updated at 7:24 p.m., listed 50 percent and 3,160 acres.
Lifting an order does not remove the fuel. The Cal Fire page on Henderson warned that “grasses and other vegetation remain extremely dry,” and Xinhua reported that Southern California Edison’s public safety power shutoffs left more than 90,000 residents in Los Angeles and Ventura counties without power, citing local television. Gov. Gavin Newsom said Friday that California had secured a Fire Management Assistance Grant from FEMA to “make additional resources available to support response efforts to the Norte Fire.” TEH reported in August that FEMA authorized emergency funds for Washington state after the Spokane wildfires.
What nobody has said is how the Norte Fire started. The authority lists the cause as under investigation, and the home count, at least six damaged or destroyed, does not say how many were lost outright.
