All evacuations lifted as Norte fire in south OC at 25% containment

Firefighters have made enough progress battling the destructive Norte fire in San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente to lift all evacuation orders affecting thousands of residents, officials announced on Saturday evening.

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The wildfire erupted on Friday morning, damaging or destroying at least seven homes and spreading to 570 acres by nightfall. As of 6 p.m. Saturday, the blaze was 25% contained, Orange County Fire Authority Chief TJ McGovern announced on X.

However, Via La Mirada in San Juan Capistrano – where four homes were damaged or destroyed – will remain closed to vehicle traffic north of Calle Esperanza to allow OCFA vehicles to continue to work. And the burn scar along Patriots Hill Trail is closed until further notice and is an active fire hazard area, officials said.

Firefighters worked through the night on Friday to suppress the fire, strengthen containment lines and extinguish hot spots, the OCFA said. They will do the same on Saturday night into Sunday, fire Capt. Paul Holladay said.

Containment – the area beyond which the fire is not expected to expand – grew from 5% on Saturday morning, when Santa Ana winds were 10 to 15 mph, with stronger gusts, as hundreds of firefighters worked to keep the blaze in its current footprint.

The fire remained at 570 acres as of 6 p.m. Saturday.

See also: San Diego utility had a power line outage near ignition point of Norte fire

As the fire exploded on Friday, some 6,000 homes and 16,000 residents were under evacuation orders.

”I can’t believe it. Thank God.”

At a home on Via La Mirada on Saturday, a bed frame sat atop a pile of rubble, as wisps of smoke continued to rise from the blackened remains. The house next door was still standing, but on the other side of it, three homes in a row had extensive damage.

Little remained beyond charred walls at the first of those houses. At the next, only a segment of the garage door remained standing, holding up a corner of the burned, caved-in roof. And at the third, the exterior remained standing, but the collapsed roof was visible through a window.

At least one house on the 33000 block of Glocamora Lane was damaged or destroyed, according to Capt. Steve Concialdi at OCFA. The hillside neighborhood is part of the guard-gated subdivision Connemara by the Sea.

John Zehren was evacuated twice Friday – first while he was surfing at Camp Pendleton because of a different fire near the base. When he went home to San Juan Capistrano, he got a text to evacuate his house.

Wearing a t-shirt branded “California dreaming” and “San Juan Capistrano” on Saturday morning, he surveyed the damage for a friend who lives on Via La Mirada.

Zehren was able to get through the road barriers on a small white e-bike. The house that he was checking on was still standing. Zehren relayed his friend’s reaction: “I can’t believe it. Thank God.”

Some homes in the neighborhood have a view of Patriots Hill, also known as Flag Hill, a popular scenic and hiking spot on the border of San Juan Capistrano and San Clemente. An American flag has long been planted there.

“What’s amazing,” Zehren said, surveying the hill and its extensive fire scar, “is everything burned – except the flag.”

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Mark Dagui spent Saturday morning feeding firefighters on Via La Mirada with his wife, Davone. From the trunk of their car, they dished up plates of noodles, barbecued pork and black rice.

“They saved our neighborhood,” Mark Dagui said. “The only thing we can do right now is show our appreciation and keep them fed.”

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The Daguis’ home of 32 years on Calle Conejo, less than half a mile away, survived the blaze.

“I never thought this would happen,” Davone Dagui said of the conflagration.

On Saturday afternoon, Chris Davidson and her 21-year-old daughter Kylie were huffing it down a hill in their gated San Juan Hills Estates neighborhood. Each carried a bag of items retrieved from their home near a still smoldering hillside.

Police wouldn’t let residents drive into the evacuated area, but they allowed them to walk. The pair walked about three miles, they said, and were hurrying to make it to a Jon Pardy country music concert at nearby Rancho Mission Viejo Riding Park.

San Juan Capistrano resident Mike Davies said he set up a tent in the back of his truck and stayed in the parking lot of a Red Cross shelter on Friday night after evacuating his home.

“I went full Chicken Little. The sky is falling,” he said of his decision to leave.

Others got harrowingly close to the fire.

Dramatic video from ABC7 on Instagram showed a mountain biker narrowly escaping towering flames as the fire closed in on the Las Ramblas Trail.

Shelters and a place to shower

The Norte fire was reported shortly after 11:30 a.m. on Friday on Portico Del Norte in San Clemente, according to the OCFA.

Fueled by strong Santa Ana winds, it initially grew to about 10 acres in extremely dry brush before expanding to an estimated 50 to 70 acres by 12:20 p.m. The fire spread throughout the day, and by Friday evening it exploded to 570 acres.

The homes burned as the fire rapidly grew, with the blaze rushing to an area including Avenida Calita, Via La Mirada and Via De Agua in San Juan Capistrano. Video from the scene showed flames burning through the roofs of multiple houses.

Several evacuation centers were opened, some hotels offered discounts, Airbnb offered free lodging and Planet Fitness announced that several locations – in Laguna Niguel, Lake Forest and Foothill Ranch – were opening their doors to residents, first responders and others impacted by the fire, providing a free place to shower, recharge devices, and access WiFi.

The Norte fire is among a handful in Southern California since the Santa Ana winds kicked up this week.

In Malibu, the Bryson fire had burned 147 acres and was 52% contained early Saturday. No homes were reported damaged or destroyed.

The Henderson fire near Camp Pendleton in San Diego County was the largest of the five fires, burning 3,132 acres, with 20% containment as of Saturday morning.

The Santa Ana winds are expected to die down significantly by Sunday, forecasters said.

Staff writer Mona Darwish and photographer Karen Tapia contributed to this report.

California pre-positioned firefighters and other resources in Orange County ahead of Norte fire

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