YORBA LINDA, Calif. (KGTV) - The Blue Ridge Fire started Monday, Oct. 27 on the west end of Corona in Riverside County then quickly moved into Orange County. As of Tuesday evening, 15,200 acres burned with 0% containment. Fire officials said ten homes were damaged in this fire.
Unlike most of the day Monday, firefighters on the ground were expected to get help from helicopter water drops on Tuesday as the intense winds have lessened, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Thanh Nguyen said.
"It's windy, but not as bad as yesterday," Nguyen said.
Mandatory evacuation orders were issued at 4:25 a.m. in Chino Hills for residents south of Soquel Canyon Parkway, including the entire area of Bell Ridge Drive and Golden Terrace Drive on the west to Misty Hill Drive on the east. Also under a mandatory evacuation order are communities north of Soquel Canyon Parkway at Pipeline Avenue, west of Wickman Elementary School, including homes on Winged Foot Way, Pebble Beach Lane, Singing Hills Drive, August Drive and Firestone Lane.
Tuesday, locals in Chino Hills near the Butterfield area packed up to leave as flames quickly approached their neighborhood from surrounding hills. Many doused their yards with water using their hoses, bracing for the worst.
“It’s pretty scary to see, it’s right behind me. It would be scary to see this whole neighborhood go up in flames,” said Katlin Lindsay, whose parents just moved into their home in the last year.
Others chose to defy the mandatory evacuation, saying they’ve seen fires come this close in the past and they have faith in firefighters to save their homes.
ABC 10News was there when the flames quickly approached one home on the outskirts of this neighborhood and watched as crews surrounded the home, ready to save it, but successfully extinguished the fire before it got to the house.
“Just have to wait it out and come back in the next few days and look at the black hills but know that our homes are safe,” said Byron Walker, confident that they would have a home to return to after evacuating.
At the end of the day, the hills surrounding the Chino Hills neighborhood were black, but the homes were standing. One woman who earlier had prayed as she watered the area around her home said that her prayers worked. Their homes survived.
