A wildfire in Irvine, California, called the Silverado Fire, prompted officials in Orange Country to tell 90,000 people to evacuate their homes on Monday and left two firefighters with critical injuries.
A statement from Orange County Fire Authority said the two firefighters, ages 26 and 31, were both intubated after receiving second-degree and third-degree burns across most of their bodies.
“They’re gravely injured,” Chief Brian Fennessy said. “Their families are with them.”
Roughly 500 firefighters have been deployed to combat the wildfire, which began around 6:45 a.m., has been made worse by strong winds, including a gust of 96 miles per hour was recorded in the San Gabriel Mountains. The blaze was 0% contained as of Monday evening.
Strong wind gusts allowed the blaze to cross a freeway, putting more people in danger. So far, 7,200 acres have been affected.
Embers can be easily carried away from the main source of the fire. Large portions of the area are made up of dry fields, leaving it particularly vulnerable.
Residents in the area have posted videos on social media of gusts of flames ripping through fields. In one video, someone was filming the smoke and clouds nearby before an officer came by and shouted over a loudspeaker: “This neighborhood is under immediate evacuation order, and you need to leave now.”
California Flames Canyon Rabbit Bunny Firefighters Irvine#Wildfire #Silveradofire #Californiawildfire #IrvineFire pic.twitter.com/XXHWmWr7Nw
— NTV Houston (@NTV_Houston) October 27, 2020
Yo this fire is actually crazy wtf #Silveradofire #irvine pic.twitter.com/Rxbx67i6uc
— Jayden (@ChefJaydenn) October 26, 2020
Charlane Stephenson, 67, told the New York Times she was at a doctor’s appointment when she got a notification that she would need to evacuate her home immediately. Upon returning to her residence, an officer was there ordering her and her neighbors to leave.
“When I got up this morning, I smelled smoke. It was scary. I have lived in Irvine for four years since my husband died, and I have never been through anything like this,” Stephenson said.
Konrad Hack, a communications professor at Concordia University Irvine, made the determination to evacuate his family from the area. The Hack family lives a couple of miles away from the mandatory evacuation zone.
“The best way I can describe the smell is when you are at the beach and you have a bonfire and you’ve got your fire pit there and the smoke blows up in your face,” he said.
Jasmin Sharp, a marketing consultant, was originally put on a voluntary evacuation notice. Shortly thereafter, her neighborhood was mandated to evacuate.
“We called, like, eight different hotels before we found someplace with space, and we still had to drive 40 minutes away,” she said. “We’re safe in a hotel for now but definitely don’t know what the next few days will look like.”
Another fire, just miles away from Irvine in Yorba Linda, California, has also been affected by the winds. Though smaller than the Silverado fire, at just over 1,000 acres affected, it has also necessitated evacuations.
