Time-lapse video captured the explosive growth of an Orange County wildfire that has destroyed homes and burned tens of thousands of acres in two Southern California counties.
The Airport Fire, one of three major wildfires in Southern California, started Monday and raced from Trabuco Canyon to Lake Elsinore in a matter of hours. By Thursday morning, the fire burned more than 23,400 acres with containment at 5 percent.
Cooler temperatures were in the forecast, which will aid firefighters as they try to increase containment of the fire that has destroyed an unknown number of homes, and injured 10 firefighters and two other people.
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"We got a lot of recovery (Tuesday) night because it cooled down," OCFA Division Chief Kevin Fetterman said. "Last night, it was 60 degrees, so that helped us improve those containment lines. That containment is expected to grow in our next report."
Fetterman added that the change in the weather overnight slowed the fire's growth and allowed firefighters to increase containment lines.
"Most of those firefighters injured were heat-related illnesses," Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Steve Concialdi said. "But one did get stung by numerous bees, and one sustained minor burns and the other couple had some injuries from fighting the fire, but all were released from the hospital and are doing well."
At a Wednesday afternoon news conference, Fetterman reported two civilian injuries -- one who suffered a medical emergency and one with unspecified burns -- and a total of 10 firefighter injuries.
Burn scars from the Holy Fire in 2018 and 2022 also provided fire breaks.
The Airport Fire began about 1 p.m. Monday near Trabuco Canyon Road in the area of the remote-controlled airplane airport, said Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Sean Doran. Concialdi said that by Tuesday morning, the fire had raced up the canyons and hillsides and crested into Riverside County. The blaze also bore down on Santiago Peak, which is home to a series of radio and television broadcast towers, used not only by local media outlets but also federal and local government agencies. The fire appeared to lap right up to the base of some of the towers, but the equipment appeared to escape any serious damage.
By early Tuesday evening, the flames marched downslope toward Lake Elsinore, with video from the area showing some structures and vehicles consumed by flames.
Orange County Fire Authority Deputy Chief TJ McGovern told reporters Monday night that the fire was accidentally sparked by a county work crew. McGovern said Orange County Public Works crews were working in the area near Trabuco Creek Road, using heavy equipment to place boulders meant to replace barriers used to restrict access to the vegetation.
The OCFA was using new firefighting helicopters that could dump 1,000 gallons of water on the flames, Doran said.
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So far in 2024, California's state firefighting agency has reported more than 6,000 wildfires that burned more than 977,000 acres. The acreage burned is a dramatic increase from 2023, when Cal Fire reported 5,053 wildfires that burned 253,755 acres. The five-year average is 5,912 wildfires and 868,803 acres burned.
