With the airport fire burning looming close to their homes, residents in the eastern hills of southern Orange County spent the past day weighing whether it was time to leave.
Some communities were under evacuation orders, but many residents stayed put for now, hoping firefighters could keep the flames away from their neighborhoods.
Steve Kilgore stood outside his home in Raintree with a pair of binoculars watching the flames devour the brush along the ridge above his neighborhood.
Kilgore was one of several residents on his street who decided to stay despite evacuation orders. Residents worked in shifts throughout the night to monitor the fire.
Kilgore packed his truck with essentials and family photos and is prepared to flee if the winds shift.
Residents of Trabuco Canyon, California, were evacuated with their luggage and pets on Tuesday after the airport fire prompted evacuations.
(Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times)
“Leaving home in this situation is horrible,” she said. “It defies logic. I have never had to do a 20- to 30-minute assessment of every valuable thing in our lives.”
Michael Bernardin, 62, was not home when the fire broke out Monday afternoon.
When he returned to his neighborhood in Robinson Ranch, the road into the community was already blocked. He parked at a nearby shopping center and walked the roughly half-mile stretch back to his house in the heat. He packed two suitcases — all he could carry — and grabbed his dogs, Pepper and Honey Noodles. He returned a second time to pick up more things, unsure of when his family would be able to return home.
“One of the suitcases was so full that I don’t think we could have checked it on a plane,” she said. “It was hot and I was struggling.”
On Tuesday morning, Bernardin and his wife, Roseann, returned home after spending the night in San Clemente. They plan to stay there unless fire conditions change, he said.
There have been a few fires in the area in the 27 years they've lived there, but this is the first time they've had to evacuate, she said.
“I didn’t sleep much last night,” he said.
Trabuco Canyon resident Marilynn Reideler drove around the neighborhood in her Ford F150 pickup truck giving rides to residents struggling to get up the hill with heavy suitcases and bags.
“It’s still hot and there’s a long walk left,” he said.
Despite evacuation orders, many residents, including Reideler, decided to wait and watch the fire move before committing to leaving.
Robert McCoy happily accepted a ride mid-morning as temperatures climbed into the 80s. He and his wife had left Monday as a precaution, but now felt confident about returning.
“The fire department is working on it,” said McCoy, 61. “I wanted to stay [Monday]but [my wife] “I was nervous.”
The fire started shortly before 1:30 p.m. Monday near a drone field in Trabuco Canyon and quickly grew out of control. At least 9,333 acres have burned, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
The Orange County Sheriff's Department encouraged residents living along Rose Canyon Road, Trabuco Creek Road, Trabuco Canyon Road, Trabuco Oaks Drive, Joplin Loop and Cook's Corner to evacuate. Homes in the Robinson Ranch and Trabuco Highlands communities in Trabuco Canyon were under mandatory evacuation orders. The Trabuco Highland apartment complex was also under mandatory evacuation orders.
On Tuesday afternoon, residents watched from their driveways as helicopters dropped thousands of gallons of water onto the steaming hillside.
So far, the fire has been burning uphill, away from subdivisions. But evacuation warnings were issued Tuesday afternoon for Riverside County communities in the mountains, where the fire was headed.
Times staff writer Summer Lin contributed to this report.
