Up to 200 Acres Burn in Trabuco Canyon Fire : Wind-Driven Blaze Contained but Firefighters Maintain Vigil; Homes, Livestock Threatened

More than 200 firefighters from throughout Orange County converged on the Trabuco Canyon area late Wednesday night to battle a 200-acre brush fire that threatened homes and livestock, authorities said.

No structures had burned by late Wednesday night, but firefighters remained on alert throughout the night as dry Santa Ana winds swept through the canyon area. Flames briefly threatened the Joplin Youth Center, a county home for boys at the end of Rose Canyon, near the Cleveland National Forest, County Fire Department officials said.

The blaze, which reportedly was sparked by a downed power line, started somewhere in the hills between Live Oak Canyon Road and Rose Canyon Road. It was whipped by winds gusting to 80 m.p.h. and was contained at about 200 acres at 10:10 p.m. Wednesday, Orange County Fire Department Capt. Hugh Madlock said.

“This fire could pick up again,” Madlock said. “We still have some hot spots within the control zone. . . . If embers start flying, we could have real problems.”

Madlock said the first report of the fire came at 8:22 p.m. Because of the severe winds, all available crews and equipment were summoned.

“This has got everybody out of bed tonight,” he said.

Gary O’Neal, one of two owners of Senor Lico’s restaurant, 20722 Rose Canyon Road, said 20 to 30 diners were in the restaurant about 8:30 p.m. when fire officials came in and told them all to leave.

“We had no idea there was a fire until we saw the first fire truck going up the street, and then we could smell it,” he said.

The fire burned “right across the street from the restaurant” about 75 feet away, but by 10:30 p.m., O’Neal said it looked “like it’s pretty well contained. They have over 100 firefighters here going house to house just putting out embers.”

O’Neal said about two dozen residents of the canyon area came to his restaurant and were awaiting word from fire officials allowing them to return to their homes.

“The Fire Department told us it was caused by a downed electrical line that started an old house on fire, up Rose Canyon Road on Ferber Ranch,” O’Neal said.

Madlock said the official cause of the brush fire had not been determined.

Firefighters made an early stand around the Joplin Youth Center, a county facility for boys that are wards of the court.

“Joplin was threatened for a while, but there is no structural damage so far,” Madlock said. “We were at one time going to evacuate, but we sent 10 engine companies up there to protect” it.

At the height of the blaze, 50 engine companies and more than 150 firefighters and two bulldozers were on the scene, led by five battalion chiefs and three commanders.

Madlock said calls for immediate aid were put out throughout the county “because of the potential. We have a canyon that is small, with old homes on both sides.

“We had, at the time of the fire, 75-m.p.h. winds and had a potential to burn basically the whole town of Trabuco, which has approximately 400 residents. Probably 75 homes were threatened,” he said.

Madlock said the first report was of 10 acres burning “and the fire was moving out fast, with winds at 60 m.p.h. and gusts to 75 to 80 m.p.h.”

Fire officials said many residents evacuated without prompting from firefighters.

“We did have a problem with horses,” Madlock said. “At one time, 16 horses were running around. People thought they would be safer if they were let free.”

Lois Keener, manager of Cook’s Corner at Live Oak Canyon and El Toro Canyon roads, said residents who came to the restaurant told her that flames appeared to come as close as 50 feet to some homes.

Keener said she went to her house to pick up her dogs, which she locked in her car. She said the restaurant would stay open throughout the night to shelter any evacuees.

“The wind is coming through these mountains, and the fire seemed to bounce off of one mountain, then switch to another,” Keener said. “That was the scary part.”

Gary Emory, owner of Emory’s Country Store at Trabuco Oaks Drive and Trabuco Canyon Road, said his son telephoned him at the store to alert him to the blaze, which was burning at the ridge top, near the boys home.

About 80 acres of dry brush is behind his home, Emory said.

The fire “was starting to crest the hill pretty fast,” Emory said. “It came down the ridge real fast and down toward the creek.”

Once word of the fire spread through the rural community, “everybody here was gathering their goods” to get out, Emory said. And because of the high winds, they also feared for their horses and brought them to Trabuco Elementary School, which residents say is a 110-year-old building.

Emory said the fire came down to about 300 feet from Hickey Creek, a tributary of Trabuco Creek. “Everybody feared it would jump the creek,” he said.

Anaheim Fire Battalion Chief Capt. John Cox said that by 11:30 p.m., winds had calmed to 25 to 30 m.p.h. with occasional gusts of 35 to 40 m.p.h. When his crew arrived shortly after the fire started, winds were about 50 to 60 m.p.h.

“You could see the red glow of the flames when we got here,” Cox said. “It was still real active.”

Dee Young, a Coto de Caza mechanic and resident of Trabuco Canyon, said he was home when the fire started shortly before 8:30 p.m. Young said it looked as though the whole hillside was on fire.

“I saw the flames coming off the hill. It was an awesome sight,” said Young, who has lived in the canyon for 15 years. “I sent my wife and two kids out. . . . We were lucky, because the wind was heading out of the canyon. It looked like it was heading to” Joplin Youth Center.

Times staff photographers Don Kelsen and Mark Boster contributed to this story.