Orange County’s Silverado fire might have been sparked by power company’s equipment

Two Orange County firefighters battled for their lives Tuesday, gravely burned in a wildfire that may have been sparked by Southern California Edison equipment.

The men, ages 26 and 31, were members of an Orange County Fire Authority hand crew working on the heel of the Silverado Fire burning in Irvine when flames overran them just after noon Monday, fire authority Chief Brian Fennessy said. One of the men was burned over 65% of his body; the second was burned over half of his body, fire officials said. Both are being treated at an Orange County hospital.

“These are two significantly injured firefighting officers,” Tim Steging, president of the Orange County Professional Firefighters Association, told reporters at an afternoon news briefing streamed on the fire authority’s Facebook page. “Their families asked me to transmit to you to stay positive and keep them in your thoughts and prayers. They are going to need long-term care for this life changing event.”

Fennessy at the same briefing said he has called in a state serious accident review team to help investigate Monday’s burnover.

Fennessy hired both firefighters, he said. Both had been with the fire authority “less than one year,” he said. Fennessey said he selected the two after impressing in their interviews.

“We hire on character,” Fennessy told reporters. “Both passed that threshold.”

Southern California Edison in a notice to state regulators Monday said the Silverado Fire that had exploded to more than 12,000 acres by Tuesday afternoon and forced tens of thousands of residents from their homes may have been sparked by the utility’s equipment.

The letter to the California Public Utilities Commission said a lashing wire may have come in contact with a conductor and may have ignited the fire, as reported by Los Angeles television station CBS2:

“Preliminary information reflects SCE overhead electrical facilities are located in the origin area of the Silverado Fire. We have no indication of any circuit activity prior to the report time of the fire, nor downed overhead primary conductors in the origin area. However, it appears that a lashing wire that was attached to an underbuilt telecommunication line may have contact SCE’s overhead primary conductor which may have resulted in the ignition of the fire. The investigation is ongoing.”

The Silverado Fire stood at 12,600 acres Tuesday afternoon with 5% containment, according to Orange County Fire Authority officials. More than 750 firefighters are on the fire lines. Powerful Santa Ana winds that kept firefighting aircraft out of the skies Monday were calmer Tuesday, allowing helicopters to rejoin the fight.

Approximately 70,000 Irvine residents and another 6,000 people in nearby Lake Forest remained under evacuation orders Tuesday, while just miles to the north the rampaging Blue Ridge Fire continued its assault.

The runaway 15,200-acre Blue Ridge Fire burned without containment Tuesday afternoon. The blaze threatened Chino Hills in neighboring San Bernardino County forcing evacuations from nearly 6,000 homes. In Yorba Linda, where the fire sparked Monday afternoon, 2,500 homes were evacuated and 10 were damaged, Orange County Fire Authority officials said. The rapidly growing blaze has overtaken the Silverado Fire burning just to the south in acreage, but no injuries to firefighters or residents were reported.

About 10,000 people are under evacuation orders.

Fierce Santa Ana winds stoked the Silverado blaze in the hills near Irvine on Monday, turning a small early morning brush fire into an all-out battle for firefighters as tens of thousands of residents in Irvine and surrounding communities were told to flee.

The revelation from Southern California Edison late Monday came just weeks after the Southland utility said it was exploring whether vegetation that touched one of its power lines may have ignited September’s destructive Bobcat Fire in the San Gabriel Mountains east of Los Angeles.

The Bobcat Fire burned nearly 116,000 acres and destroyed 87 homes.

Six firefighters were hurt battling that blaze.

The connection between equipment owned and maintained by California’s powerful utilities and destructive wildfires has come under increasing scrutiny after the deadly infernos that tore through wine country in 2017 and destroyed the city of Paradise in November 2018’s Camp Fire.

The Camp Fire killed 86 people in the state’s deadliest wildfire.

Pacific Gas & Electric equipment, blamed in both blazes, was driven into bankruptcy by the tens of billions of dollars in liability out of the wine country fires.

PG&E pleaded guilty to 84 counts of manslaughter connected to the Camp Fire and filed for bankruptcy protection in early 2019.

Earlier this month, Cal Fire investigators in Northern California seized PG&E equipment after the state’s largest utility said the equipment may have caused the deadly Zogg Fire in Shasta County that killed four people, charred more than 56,000 acres and destroyed 204 buildings.