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‘It just came too fast:’ Yorba Linda house is destroyed by flames as a neighbor’s new home is untouched
Chunks of Roger Behle’s ruined second floor crumbled onto a growing, smoldering pile of debris as his next-door neighbors carried furniture into their new, perfectly untouched house.
Despite regular preventative maintenance and the installation of a fire hose on the property, The Behle residence was the only home destroyed by the Blue Ridge fire in Yorba Linda.
“The firefighters said ‘there’s nothing we or you could have done,’” Behle said. “I’d say we had a total of eight minutes to get out. It just came too fast.”
The fire that gutted his house also damaged seven others and spread to 14,334 acres by Thursday. It began Monday, just hours after the Silverado fire exploded across the hills east of Irvine. That fire has charred 13,390 acres so far, but damaged no buildings.
Both fires grew rapidly at first, driven by low humidity and Santa Ana winds gusting as fast as 75 mph Monday and Tuesday. But firefighters continued to make progress as conditions calmed Wednesday, and had mostly halted the spread of flames overnight. The Silverado fire was 51% contained, and the Blue Ridge fire was 39% contained by 6: 45 p.m. Thursday.
Two firefighters on an Orange County Fire Authority hand crew remained hospitalized on Thursday. They were critically injured after a burnover, when flames overtake firefighters or their equipment, and there is no opportunity for an escape to safety. It was not clear whether the men were able to deploy their shelters during the incident.
“They’re still in a fight for their lives,” OCFA Fire Chief Brian Fennessy said in a Thursday news conference.
Fire and maintenance crews were still present in the recently reopened areas, conducting mop-up operations Thursday after flames forced thousands of people in Irvine, Lake Forest, Foothill Ranch, Yorba Linda, Brea and Chino Hills to flee their homes. Most evacuation orders were lifted by Wednesday while others reopened Thursday, and many residents came home to neighborhoods surrounded by scorched terrain.
Winds were forecast to remain mild through next Thursday, according to the National Weather Service.
On Monday, hot, extreme winds drove stinging ash into Behle’s eyes and nose as his wife Denise and 15-year-old son, also named Roger, wrangled their pets beneath an orange glow cast by approaching flames.
At one point, his son dove head-first into a bush to catch one of their three mini pigs, before their Siberian husky and the rest of the household packed into the car to escape the inferno.
Behle’s family has been staying at a hotel while searching for a more permanent housing arrangement. It might take more than a year, he said, but they want to remain in Yorba Linda. And they intend to rebuild their home.
The Behles have lived in the city for over a decade, and this was not the first time they’ve had to scramble from a wildfire. Their house was the only one on the block left standing by the massive Freeway Complex fire in 2008.
It was his next-door neighbor’s home that burned down 12 years ago. Behle said he was happy to see them finally move back to their street this week.
The irony wasn’t lost on him.
“Now, it’s our turn,” he said. “We love this area, and it comes with risks.”
Staff writer Alma Fausto contributed to this report.
