Toxcina King
21 For the past three days, wind-whipped flames have engulfed California, spreading from Santa Barbara to south of the border of Mexico. For one Orange County neighborhood, not all the fires were started by Mother Nature but instead, at the hands of an arsonist.
It was a near miss for most residence of the small unincorporated community of Santiago Canyon, located in the Santa Ana Mountains in eastern Orange County. The homesteads are residential hillside estates worth millions of dollars.
Arson investigators believe this fire was intentionally set. The fire started just before 6 p.m. on Sunday. Santa Ana winds of 35 to 45 mph were reported as the fire spread.
Orange County Fire Authority Chief, Chip Prather announced Monday, “I’m sad to report this is an arson fire. There were three separate starts. Two on one side of the road one on the other and obviously we are actively investigating that.”
As the fire became more activated, smaller blazes were merging into larger forcing mandatory evacuations. Representatives of the American Red Cross were on hand to provide assistance.
According the OCFA’s Web site, more than 15,000 acres had burned. One structure was consumed and four firefighters have suffered minor injuries.
In addition to Orange County, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger also declared a state of emergency for seven other California counties.
Prather also appealed to anyone seeing suspicious arson activity in the area to call the arson tip line at 800-540-8282.