Norte Fire: Some evacuations lifted as crews work to increase containment

You were watching live now with a President Donald Trump rally in Kentucky. You are now watching Fox Local Los Angeles. I'm Coco McAvoy. It's about 1230 here on your Saturday afternoon, and we want to update you on the Norte fire that is burning in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano. So we now know that some evacuation orders have been lifted. Let's go ahead and listen in to the Orange County Fire Authority and the Sheriff's Department. Good afternoon. Greg Barta, Public Information Officer on the Norte incident Good afternoon, Sergeant Gwizdala, Public Information Officer for the Orange County Sheriff's Department. We wanted to provide everybody with an incident update. Due to the work that's occurred in the last handful of hours, we are now going to be able to repopulate a few portions of the impacted communities. Sergeant Gwizdala is going to cover that now. Zone 13 in the city of San Clemente will reopen and people can begin going back to their homes. There's a small portion in San Juan Capistrano Zone 10 that will begin to repopulate as well. And that will directly affect San Juan Hills High School, a landfill off Avenida de la Para, and a small community off of Stallion Ridge. We maintain road closures in all other areas and we encourage people to stay out of the area as the crews continue to keep the community safe. We really appreciate your patience during this time, and our heart goes out to those that have been directly affected. So you were just hearing that update from the Orange County Fire Authority and the Sheriff's Department as well, talking about those evacuation orders that have been lifted. Let's go ahead and put the updated map on your screen right now for all of those of you who are still evacuated, because still thousands of people remain under evacuation. But hearing that good news from authorities that we now know that San Clemente Zone 13 has been reopened to go back home. And we know a portion of Zone 10 from San Juan Capistrano has also been reopened as well. To continue our coverage here this afternoon, I want to bring in my colleague now, Nick Garcia, who has been reporting on the Norte fire since yesterday. And, Nick, if you can talk about what you're seeing right now and what has changed since yesterday, too. Well, Coco, what's changed is there's remarkably less smoke in the air. I can still smell it, but it doesn't look nearly as bad as it did yesterday afternoon. We're on Via La Mirada. That's where four to five homes were either destroyed or damaged by the Norte Fire. But I want to bring in Captain Steve Concialdi from the Orange County Fire Authority. Going to break down some more of the evacuation orders that have been lifted. We're still in an order zone where we stand. here, but good news for some folks. Yeah, great news right now. So this is live, just came off the press. Basically, there's a full repopulation in San Clemente in zone 13. Zone 12 still remains in an evacuation area where they cannot return as of yet. So we're working on increasing all these. In San Juan Capistrano, there's a partial repopulation in zone 10, And that's the communities around the San Juan Hills High School, the area surrounding the Prima Landfill, and the community of Stallion Ridge. So that's a partial repop in Zone 10. Unfortunately, Zone 4 and 5 is still in a full evacuation zone. And you can see it. The power is still out. SDG&E personnel are here. Firefighters are up and down the street, still have hose lines between the homes, making sure all the hot spots are out. We still have the wind. It's breezy. It's died down a lot. The sun came out, so it's still hot, but it's breezy right now. We want to make sure we don't have any other problems with any other homes. Captain, when you look at a partial repopulation, why is that the case? Is there some reason why it's not a full repop? Talk me through that. Right, so those zones are preset, and then when there's a fire, the fire doesn't burn through the whole area, but like in this, in Zone 10, it impacted some of that area. So the other areas, it's safe. Those residents can go. I know everybody's been anxious to go back in. Anytime we have these fires, people are going to be out for a number of hours, 24, sometimes up to 72 hours or longer. So this has been about 24 hours, a little over 24 hours. And I know everybody's anxious. They want to get back to their homes. They want to bring their pets back. They want to get to their medications. But that's That's a great thing right now we could talk about. We live in Southern California. We will continue to have these fires, especially when we have these Santa Ana wind conditions. So when you're told to evacuate, you have a few minutes to get out. Grab your medications, your prescription glasses, those important documents, your important papers, personal computers, your pets and photos, and get out. If you have those, you could survive just fine for 24, 48 hours, 72 hours. Good reminders given this is really our first Santa Ana wind event of the year. We're in for a lot more. Right. So, again, we live in Southern California. We typically have our most destructive fires in October, November, and December. And, of course, firefighters don't want to see one home damaged or destroyed ever. And a lot of us live in this area. A lot of our firefighters live in San Juan Capistrano in the city of San Clemente. And it's heartbreaking. We know people that are affected in these neighborhoods. And so we appreciate all the residents getting out. They got out. There's not one civilian injury. That is amazing. When you evacuate thousands of people and not one person is consumed with smoke or gets injured or crashes on the way out, our firefighters were able to get up here quickly, saving hundreds of thousands of homes because the residents took those warnings and left right away. I'm noting that the wind has picked up just a little bit while we've been talking. Is that going to be the big challenge? I know the topography was a bit of a challenge as well, the terrain here, but the wind, I'm imagining, is going to be the biggest challenge right now. Right. Anytime we have wind, that's what basically kicks the fire going. If there's hot spots in there, all last night, I was here late last night, and the fire was kicking up and embers were being thrown, especially in this wind. So we don't want to have any new starts, any homes or around the homes to start up. That's why our firefighters are here. There's over 750 firefighters, and just know that your homes are safe. There's been no new damage after the height of this fire, and we're keeping everybody safe. Remarkable work. Truly, we thank you and all of the men and women on the line. Lastly, though, on that note, I know those two who were hospitalized, any word on their condition? Yeah, they're both doing really well. So one was released yesterday. I was texting early this morning, and one of them, he's doing great. So they're both doing well. That's what we like to see. Because truly, I mean, we were next to that house on Guacamora as it went down, and you could feel it from the firefighters you could see they're heartbroken to see that happen to anybody's home exactly it's just again we don't want to see one home damaged or destroyed unfortunately we have these Santa Ana wind events and there's nothing you could do when those that wind-driven fire is being blown at gusts of 25 30 40 sometimes greater than that and you could only do so much captain anything else you want to share no we just appreciate the public their patience. We're trying to get everybody repopulated back to their homes. So just be patient a little bit longer. All right. Captain Steve Concialdi from the Orange County Fire Authority, thank you so much for your time. We really appreciate that. Coco, I'll just tell you, you know, the wind really has kicked up a little bit. So I would imagine that's why they're keeping their eyes on those hot spots and doing their best to get those out. But as you know, those areas can remain hot for a long time. So they need to stay put and make sure that there's no flare-ups. Yeah, no flare-ups for sure. That's really important. And as you were reporting live, we could see that tree behind you blowing as well. So definitely obvious to see that the wind is still a factor out there for those firefighters. And I can't help but notice that off to the distance as well, you can just see the damage from that fire, that one home that just looks, appears to be destroyed from the flames. And your heart really goes out to people who have lost everything in this fire, this Norte fire. Yeah, no, absolutely, Coco. I mean, we're getting a look at this, and again, there's four or five homes on this street here, so this is where the bulk of the damage was in terms of the homes. Let me see what Gino was showing you right now so I can give you a better, yeah, yeah, you see several homes here just torn through. What we're glad to not see here anymore, though, is active flames because we saw active flames most of the day over on Glockomora Lane yesterday, So it's good to see that. And again, Gino's now giving you that American flag that remains on the hill. I know if you were watching any of our coverage yesterday, it still stands. It didn't get burned, but you can also see just how strong the wind is blowing. Of course, that hill higher than where I'm standing right now. So you can see that the winds are still an issue, but incredible to see. You know, the flag still stands, even though the whole hillside around it is charred. Yeah, and Nick, truly an incredible update from you and that captain as well from Orange County Fire Authority, noting that there are no injuries, no civilian injuries, and that those firefighters who were injured are doing OK as well. And I think that speaks to the fact that people took these evacuation orders really seriously. I mean, I could even tell behind you, obviously, there are photographers and some firefighters, But it appears everyone on Villa La Mirada, which was one of those streets that was heavily impacted, did take heed to those evacuation orders. It's very, very quiet around here. A lot of times, a lot of folks stay behind. They want to stay and watch their home and protect it and do what they can. And that's what I often see. I know you probably do, too, Coco, when we cover these fires that get so close to homes. People have a hard time leaving. This is a situation where I have seen very, very few civilians, very few residents. They've all heeded those evacuation orders and warnings and gotten out of the way here. The only people that we've seen so far today, we've seen maybe a couple of possible homeowners. The rest has been media and the fire crews as they continue to do their work here. What we're seeing now is a little bit of the investigation work that the firefighters have to do. They have to capture images and go through everything when a house burns down. So they're doing that now. That's why we can't get any closer just yet. But we will be able to move a little bit closer and maybe give you a better look a little later. I know this hill looks out south to where we were standing yesterday. That's Glockemora Lane. So maybe we'll get a view of the damage that was done to that one house, but also the hillside there. It was just incredible the way that that fire moved past so many houses that are untouched. Right. Nick Garcia, thank you so much for your coverage. We really appreciate it. You and Gino out there. We're going to continue to stay on your shot as well, bringing colleague Star Harvey into the equation here. And because Nick, you know, you're out there on the ground and we can obviously see that it's still very windy. It is still very windy out there, you know, and I do appreciate him giving us his perspective on that. He said that he felt that the winds were picking back up. And immediately after hearing him say that, I went and checked the wind conditions across the area. And I can tell you, we do still have that constant push and that wind direction from the northeast to east across a big chunk of the Southern California area. Now, this is going to be the typical or the classic Santa Ana direction that we talk about when we mention these type of impacts across the area. So, yes, we are going to be in this pocket of more, I'd say, dangerous wind conditions through primarily most of today. We are not going to see that red flag warning lifted until 8 p.m. We do have some wind advisories, but also some high wind warnings that will be lifted as we push into the 2 o'clock hour. But other than that, we can't expect that our winds will be on the heavier side through at least half of today before we start to see those improvements. And that's really important to note and important for the firefighters to know as well, obviously, as they continue this firefight. Yes, absolutely. Another focus is going to be the fact that tomorrow is when those extreme improvements arrive for us. The change of those winds, but also the cooler conditions. And then by next week, Coco, I mean, it's going to be pretty late thinking of what we do have happening with the North Cape Fire in Orange County, but we do have some precipitation on the way. Okay, so I know we want to go ahead and take a look at some of that then. Yes, yes, let's go ahead and take a look at some of that. What we do have pulled up here right now is our satellite and radar. And I'm focusing on our satellite and radar because when I came in, I noticed that we do have this batch of moisture sitting off to the south of us. Now, what I can tell you is that we're picking up on some of those scattered showers, not just on the radar across northern Baja, California, but also near San Diego. Now, this is primarily interesting to me because we're still dealing with some very dry conditions across the area. Now, some of this moisture is moving northward, bringing some of the increased cloud cover across the area. But because the lower atmosphere is so dry, not all of that precipitation is necessarily reaching the ground. Again, we're not expecting to see more of that widespread wet weather until we arrive at Tuesday to Wednesday of next week. I'm going to also refocus on some of our alerts. Now, you'll notice that we do have a wind advisory. This is going to be in place until 2 p.m. That high wind warning was due to expire a little bit earlier, but you can see we are now holding that as well until 8 p.m. A red flag warning, which is going to include those areas where we're watching, not just for the high winds, but also that relatively low humidity. And then, of course, that air quality near the Orange County area. So with our wind advisory, you'll see this including areas west and north of L.A. So up that I-5 corridor over into Ventura County, south of the Antelope Valley area, where we could potentially see those northeast winds up to about 30 miles per hour. The potential to see some of those bursts of winds, what we also call gusts, up to 50 miles per hour. This is another alert. This, again, was expected to go until noon. You can see here the National Weather Service has now extended it until 8 p.m. And it's going to be for these designated areas shaded in orange. It's going to include portions of the Inland Empire down towards Temecula. If you're traveling through the 215 freeway, the 15 freeway across the 10 through and around portions of the Inland Empire, but also down into Temecula, we could potentially see gusts anywhere from 35 to 45 miles per hour. There's a look at that air quality alert. This went into effect yesterday, right around the time that we did have that Norte fire begin in the Orange County area. We're watching this across Anaheim, Huntington Beach, Irvine, Mission Viejo, Laguna Niguel, all of that highlighted blue area there on the map. That's in place until 6 p.m. this evening. Now, our red flag warning, again, gusts up to 45 miles per hour possible. Humidity is going to be on the lower side as well. and our headlines. I've been chatting about these all morning. This is our last day of our Santa Ana wind events, and so I do want to talk about some of those winds. Now, we are seeing this final push of Santa Ana winds from Southern California today, with those winds primarily blowing from the east to the northeast. Now, as we move through the afternoon, those winds will gradually weaken with a shift toward cooler onshore winds from the west and the southwest, and that's going to develop along the coast so by tomorrow that cooling trend will reach further inland bringing some much-needed relief from the heat and the elevated fire danger so we are not out of the woods just yet but the weather should begin to cooperate with firefighters as we especially move into tomorrow and of course those bigger improvements are going to be the weaker winds the cooler conditions followed by the possibility of some of that widespread rain as we move into next week. All very important to note. And I know firefighters are always keeping a close eye on the forecast as well, because it's important for them to know as we continue to take a live look here at that live view from Nick Garcia and Gino Arias that are in San Juan Capistrano right now. You can see the trees are blowing and firefighters still on the ground out there as well. They are, you know, the winds in that area yesterday, we had some wind topping 30 miles per hour, those gusts. And again, I went ahead and checked as soon as I heard Nick say that. And we do have some of those pretty powerful gusts moving through the area. And, you know, we're not expecting it to let down until we move into later today. So it'll be something we'll have to keep our eyes on. It is still really good to look at this footage that we do have here and note that we do not see as much of those flames as we saw yesterday. We are not looking at as much of that, you know, those plumes of smoke moving out there. So some improvements, we do have to note that as well. Yeah, that's very important to note. And then, of course, as Orange County Fire Authority was mentioning, some evacuation orders have been lifted as well. That includes that San Clemente Zone 13 is all reopened and San Juan Capistrano Zone 10 is partially reopened for people to return home. So.