Latest news with #OCFA
Los Angeles Times
22-07-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
Watch: SoCal firefighters save the life of Eli, a colicky mule
Orange County firefighters came to the rescue when a 20-year-old mule named Eli appeared down for the count. The Orange County Fire Authority captured video of the Trabuco Canyon operation last week. Eli was experiencing life-threatening colic, the agency said on X. Station 18 stepped in when the mule's owners were unable to get him to stand. Footage showed the horizontal equine squirming and struggling as a firefighter and a veterinarian assisted him. A crew of firefighters then tied Eli up, flipped him, and hoisted him using a rescue device called a bipod. According to Sean Doran, a spokesperson for OCFA, that equipment was also used in World War I to roll over upside-down tanks. 'It's got this incredible capacity and strength,' he said told The Times. 'These horses obviously, or mules in this case, are no match for it.' The firefighters pulled Eli out of his stable before bringing him to his feet. After a bit, he clopped back into his stable, where he is doing much better, the authority's X post said. According to the University of Minnesota, horses and other equines are naturally prone to colic. Allowing the animal to walk around can help ease pain, the university said. Doran said that Eli, lying down, wasn't able to pass food and was at risk of his organs compressing. Had he not been hoisted upright, the colic could have been fatal, he said. Doran said he watched the rescue happen on Friday and visited Eli again on Sunday. He spoke with one of the owners, an animal lover who had owned Eli for almost all of the mule's life. Everything about the rescue was 'just goodness, pure goodness,' he said. He also said that OCFA firefighters had been trained to conduct large-animal rescues with live horses. In addition to routine rescue skills, they learn how to approach the horses and to interpret how they need to be treated depending on the situation. 'It's seamless teamwork in action,' he said.
Los Angeles Times
09-07-2025
- Los Angeles Times
Laguna officials point to fire mitigation efforts, mutual aid as keys to successful Rancho fire response
Following a rapid response Monday afternoon to put out a brush fire allegedly started by a 13-year-old igniting illegal fireworks in Laguna Beach, city officials lauded the success of prior mitigation efforts taken and teamwork across multiple agencies. The Rancho fire, which burned 4.6 acres on a hillside near the intersection of Morningside Drive and Rancho Laguna Road, had reached 95% containment as of Tuesday evening's meeting of the City Council, where leaders of the community's public safety departments gave a rundown of operations since the blaze broke out just after 2 p.m. on Monday. 'We're very fortunate that there were no other active incidents going on in Southern California,' Fire Chief Niko King said. 'It's pretty unique to have an active vegetation fire threatening homes, put out those resource requests, and get every single resource request filled.' When a social media video surfaced of a youth lighting a firework that wound up in the adjacent brush, community members notified authorities. 'They saw what occurred, and we were immediately receiving notifications and video that they saw what they believed was the start of the fire,' Police Chief Jeff Calvert said. 'Our Laguna Beach police detectives, OCFA arson investigators, along with Laguna Beach fire department arson investigators all came together and worked to identify the suspect — unfortunately, a 13-year-old kid — and within 12 hours, authored and executed a search warrant and took him into custody.' Police rangers also detained and questioned two additional minors. Both were determined to be witnesses to the incident, not suspects. Orange County Juvenile Hall did not accept the suspect for booking, police said, citing an absence of injuries or immediate threat to structures. The Laguna Beach police department processed the suspect and released him to his parents. City Manager Dave Kiff was among those attending Tuesday's City Council meeting who expressed a feeling that the community 'got off a little easy,' although fire mitigation efforts, including fuel modification via vegetation management and helicopter refilling tanks were contributing factors in addition to favorable weather conditions. King said firefighters saw flame lengths that were approximately 50 feet tall on the steep slope. A fuel modification zone that aided in slowing the spread of the fire had recently been completed, city officials said. 'One of our fuel modification zones worked as it was supposed to,' King added. 'The flames quickly died down, and it was about that time — probably only about seven or eight minutes into the incident — where the first helicopter resource arrived and made a water drop and put it perfectly where it was supposed to, protecting the properties. … 'The water district gets a lot of credit. They called me within just minutes after we reported the fire [and] said, 'Chief, what do you need?' They asked if we needed those HeloPods active. They had both of them in service, and we heard directly from the pilots about the 90-second turnaround time that they had to fill and return to the fire with five working helicopters.' Councilman Bob Whalen noted air coverage has become essential in fighting wildfires and called on city staff to learn about how the county's resources are deployed. 'We need to make sure that there's always 24/7, 365 days a year air resources, at least some air resource capability in south Orange County,' he said. Evacuation orders were issued for several neighborhoods, including residents at Baja Street, Katella Street, La Mirada Street and Summit Drive. An evacuation warning was also given to residents south of Del Mar in Arch Beach Heights. A care and reception center was set up at the Laguna Beach Community and Susi Q Center. Sarah Lemonis, the city's emergency operations coordinator, said it was staffed by members of the community services department and community emergency response team (CERT) volunteers. Public information was distributed through several update videos, as well as via Nixle and AlertOC communications, Lemonis added. The messages included information regarding evacuations and road closures. There was a push from the City Council dais for residents to sign up for local alerts. Whalen said a couple of people were given calls to let them know they had to evacuate. 'It's still amazing to me how many people are not signed up for the Nixle alerts, the alerts you get from the city,' said Whalen. 'There must have been 10 of them [Monday] afternoon between 2 and 5.' Road closures helped navigate emergency vehicles toward the fire and facilitate evacuations. Inbound traffic from Dana Point was diverted at Crown Valley Parkway and southbound vehicles on Coast Highway were redirected from the downtown area onto Laguna Canyon Road. The city distributed a media release on Wednesday morning declaring the Rancho fire had been 100% contained and all roads had been reopened. 'This is a terrifying incident for our community, but we've been preparing for this since [the devastating 2018 Paradise [fire] and putting together the wildland fire mitigation and fire safety subcommittee and really investing in our community on wildfire mitigation,' Calvert, the police chief, said. 'We saw the results of that, and the team effort that I saw [on Monday] was nothing short of outstanding. 'Do we have room to improve? Of course, but we'll take this. I told my team this was a test for us, and we're going to get better from here, but our officers were on scene within minutes of this being reported, and they were immediately coordinating resources and asking for mutual aid.' Other agencies that responded to the incident included Anaheim fire and rescue, Cal Fire, CERT, the Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Orange County and Los Angeles County fire departments, the Orange County Fire Authority, the Orange County Sheriff's Department, the Irvine police department, O.C. Parks, and the Laguna Beach County Water District. Laguna Beach put forth its initial wildfire mitigation and fire safety plan in 2019. The city reestablished an ad hoc committee to focus on the plans in January as wildfires in the Los Angeles area renewed concerns among residents that more needed to be done. 'We have two refillable water stations on the ridge and soon to have a third one in South Laguna,' said Councilwoman Sue Kempf, who was appointed to serve on the committee along with Whalen. 'It's really a force multiplier. It really allowed us to get at that fire very, very quickly. 'Since 2019, when we did our fire mitigation and fire safety plan, we've spent about $25 million, and I think we're going to spend another three to four [million dollars] this coming year, which is a drop in the bucket when you figure if we had a catastrophic fire here, we're going to have a loss in the millions.' Kempf added that the city is looking at technological solutions, including the use of artificial intelligence cameras and the installation of a traffic signal priority system to coordinate signaling across Coast Highway. Hallie Jones, the newest member of the council, credited previous iterations of the governing body for making 'hard choices at times.' 'The fuel modification program, specifically, that's an expensive program, and it's a controversial program,' Jones said. 'They're hard, nuanced decisions that this council makes, and we don't always see the benefit of those decisions until a decade, 15 years later. 'I really want us to all take a moment and think about what happened [Monday], and what could have happened … if we didn't have a council … that was brave enough and courageous enough to make some of these unpopular decisions that proved to be so critical and so important.'
CBS News
05-07-2025
- CBS News
2 people hospitalized after second-alarm fire in Stanton
Orange County firefighters took two people to the hospital after a fire engulfed an apartment complex in Stanton. The Orange County Fire Authority said the apartment fire happened in the 7100 block of Kelton Way. The victims' conditions were not immediately released. Two people were injured after a fire in Stanton. OCFA Investigators have not yet determined the cause of the fire.
Hindustan Times
04-07-2025
- Climate
- Hindustan Times
Tonner fire: Massive blaze in Brea hills, Timber Canyon; scary videos surface
A massive fire broke out in Brea at the 57 and Timber Canyon on Thursday. It was termed the Tonner fire. Several locals posted videos of the blaze on social media, warning others about the spread. No injuries have been reported yet. Brea fire: Tonner fire spread quickly on Thursday(X) 'New start in Brea at the 57 and Timber Canyon. This will be known as the #TonnerFire The fire is approx 1/2 acre in light flashy fuels, topography driven with no structures threatened at this time,' a local scanner noted on X, platform formerly known as Twitter. 'brush fire in Brea on the 57! It's officially fire season and as always thank you to our first responders for everything they do😔' another person tweeted. The blaze, reported at around 6:57 PM PDT, prompted road closures and raised concerns due to its proximity to residential areas like Olinda Village and Diamond Bar. Videos circulating on X capture the fire's intensity, showing flames and thick smoke. Details of the Tonner Fire The fire ignited off the northbound 57 Freeway, south of Tonner Canyon Road, near the Los Angeles–Orange County line, according to local reports. It burned 20 acres in the rugged, undeveloped Tonner Canyon, a 5,700-acre area stretching from Diamond Bar to Brea. The blaze threatened nearby communities, including Olinda Village and Diamond Bar's County Estates, but no homes were reported damaged. The Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), supported by Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACoFD) and Cal Fire, deployed 28 units, including OCFA Copter 2 and Helitanker 47, to combat the fire. Tonner Canyon, owned largely by the City of Industry, has a history of wildfires, including a 16-acre fire in 2019 and the 2008 Freeway Complex Fire, which spurred multi-agency drills like the SOLAR exercise.
Gizmodo
23-06-2025
- Climate
- Gizmodo
Alarming Conditions and Federal Chaos Could Spell a Disastrous California Fire Season
In January, destructive wildfires devastated Los Angeles, killing at least 30 people and displacing hundreds of thousands more. As the city rebuilds, it may face a particularly brutal summer fire season, experts warn. Thanks to a potentially deadly combination of alarming environmental conditions and sweeping cuts to emergency response agencies, the outlook on California's 2025 fire season is grim. With critical resources—particularly fire response personnel—drastically depleted, it's unclear how the state will be able to manage what is shaping up to be an active season. 'I am not confident in our ability to respond to wildfire [or] concurrent disasters this summer,' Daniel Swain, a climate scientist at the University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources, told Gizmodo. Unusually early mountain snowmelt, a very dry winter, and both current and projected above-average temperatures are the main factors likely to increase the frequency and intensity of California's fires this year, he said. 'Some aspects of fire season are predictable and some aspects are not. What ultimately happens will be a function of both of those things,' Swain said. 'The most likely outcome is a very active fire season both in the lower elevations and also in the higher elevations this year.' Brian Fennessy, chief of the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA), agrees. 'Every predictive service model indicates that Southern California will have an active peak fire year,' he told Gizmodo in an email. 'Absent significant tropical influence that brings with it high humidity and potential precipitation, we expect the potential for large fires.' In a typical year in June, California is still pretty wet, Swain said. At higher elevations, snowpack continues to melt until July, keeping mountain soils moist. Meanwhile, lower elevations remain saturated from the state's wet season, which generally lasts from winter to spring. But this is not a typical year. 'Although the seasonal mountain snowpack was decently close to the long-term average…it melted much faster than average,' Swain said. When snowpack melts earlier, high-elevation soils dry out earlier, jumpstarting wildfire season in California's mountain regions. 'We're about a month to a month-and-a-half ahead of schedule in terms of the drying in the mountains,' he explained. Because of this, the higher mountain forest fire risk is probably going to be 'a lot higher' than usual by July, August, and September. In California's low-lying regions, which include most of the state's area and population, experts are already seeing an uptick in fire activity. The reasons vary for different parts of the state, Swain said, but in Southern California, it's due to a very dry winter. 'We know this because we had the worst, most destructive fires on record in L.A. in January, which is usually the peak of the rainy season,' he explained. In low-lying, inland areas of Northern California, it's been unseasonably hot for the past month. In addition to raising current fire risk, the above-average temperatures suggest the state is in for an incredibly hot summer, according to Swain. 'To the extent that we have seasonal predictions, the one for this summer and early fall is screaming, 'yikes—this looks like a very hot summer,' potentially across most of the West,' he said. In fact, it could be among the warmest on record. Increased temperatures will make the landscape even drier—and thus more flammable—than it already is. But hot, dry conditions cannot spark a wildfire alone. Fires need fuel, and this year, there's plenty of it to go around. Over the past several years, California's low-elevation regions have received a lot of rain, allowing grasses to flourish, Swain said. As this vegetation continues to dry out, it could fuel fast-moving brush fires that can quickly engulf large areas. All of this points to an active season not just in California, but across much of the West. The National Interagency Fire Center's significant wildland fire potential outlook, which predicts wildfire risk across the U.S. from June through September, shows large swaths of the West with 'above-normal' fire risk throughout the summer. Still, scientists can't forecast the timing, intensity, or exact location of future fires. The biggest question mark is ignition, according to Swain. The primary ignition sources for wildfire are lightning strikes and human activity, both of which are near-impossible to predict. 'At a seasonal scale, we don't know how many lightning events there'll be, we don't know how careful or uncareful people will be during these weather events, and that's kind of the wild card,' he said. Since taking office in January, President Donald Trump has significantly reduced staff and proposed major budget cuts at multiple agencies that assist disaster response and recovery, including FEMA (the Federal Emergency Management Agency). According to the Associated Press, Trump plans to begin 'phasing out' FEMA after hurricane season, which officially ends on November 30. Disaster response is already locally led and state-managed, but FEMA is responsible for coordinating resources from federal agencies, providing direct assistance programs for households, and funding public infrastructure repairs, the AP reports. Dismantling this agency would shift the full burden of disaster recovery to the states, which Swain calls 'a big concern.' 'Everybody I know in the emergency management world is tearing out their hair right now,' he said. 'Our ability to do concurrent disaster management is severely degraded, and by all accounts, is going to get much worse in the next three or four months.' The U.S. Forest Service has also taken a hit, losing 10% of its workforce as of mid-April, according to Politico. While the Department of Agriculture has said that none of the Forest Service's 'operational' wildland firefighters were fired, but the cuts did impact 'thousands' of red card-holding federal employees, according to Swain. These employees are not official firefighters, but they are trained and certified to respond to wildfires in times of need. The cuts have also affected incident management teams who lead wildfire response and ensure the safety of firefighters on the ground, he said. 'We lost both the infantry, if you will, and the generals in the wildland fire world,' Swain said. 'Despite a number of claims to the contrary.' What's more, Trump recently ordered government officials to consolidate wildland firefighting forces—which are currently split among five agencies and two Cabinet departments—into a single force. He gave the Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Agriculture 90 days to comply, which means the shakeup would occur during California's wildfire season. Swain thinks restructuring might be a good idea in the long run, but dismantling the organizational structure of wildland firefighting during the peak of what is expected to be a particularly severe fire season—with no specific plan to reconstitute it during said season—is not. While Chief Fennessy described current federal disaster policy as a 'big unknown,' he appears more optimistic about the consolidation. 'It is believed that consolidating the five federal wildland fire agencies will achieve operational efficiencies and cost savings not realized in the past,' he said. The firefighters of the new U.S. Wildland Fire Service will be actively working together with the land management agencies to accomplish fire prevention, fuel mitigation, and prescribed fire goals, Fennessy said. 'The consolidation represents an opportunity to significantly improve wildfire response nationally, statewide, and locally.' Despite federal uncertainties and a troubling forecast, Fennessy said the OCFA is well-prepared for California's fire season this year. 'All of our firefighters just completed their annual refresher training and have been briefed on what to expect through the rest of the calendar year and perhaps beyond,' he said. Swain still has concerns. 'Everybody involved is going to do their best, and there are going to be heroic efforts,' he said, adding that many firefighters will be putting in a lot of unpaid overtime and taking on even more stress and physical risk than usual this year. 'Those are not the people we should be taking resources away from.'
