At 7 a.m. Sunday, about 300 firefighters gathered at Irvine Regional Park, the new incident command base for what has been dubbed the "Triangle Complex" fire. The blaze includes the "Freeway Complex" fire and the Brea fire in Orange County.
Fire officials said the blaze had burned through 10,475 acres, damaging or destroying more than 106 homes and injuring seven firefighters. Four of the firefighters were injured in Corona, in Riverside County, shortly after the fire broke out at about 9 a.m. near the 91 Freeway near Green River and the 55 Freeway.
Overnight, the fire was "very active," officials said. At about 3:30 a.m., winds blowing out of the south pushed the fire across Carbon Canyon Road, south of Sleepy Hollow, toward Telegraph Canyon. The flames were encroaching on the 57 Freeway and pushing into Valencia, said Mike Boyle, chief of the night operations section.
In Chino Hills, there were thick smoke and flames, also hitting Highway 71.
Additional structures were damaged overnight. In Carbon Canyon, at least one mobile home was burned in Olinda Village. In Chino Hills, at least two structures burned. At least two or three structures burned in Yorba Linda.
Sunday, temperates are expected to reach 88 degrees, slightly higher than on Saturday, with humidity remaining in the single digits at around 8%, said Rob Balfour, the incident meteorologist. As of 7 a.m., temperatures were already 75 degrees with 10% to 15% humidity.
Overnight, winds in the canyon were at 25 mph, gusting to 45 mph. A red flag warning remains in effect until 4 p.m. Sunday, but winds are expected to weaken between 2 and 6 p.m. before tapering off over the next few days. Winds in the canyons and ridges are expected to blow between 5 to 10 mph, with gusts of up to 20 mph.
Firefighters said they were concerned about the wind shifting from an offshore to an on-shore flow, which can cause unpredictable fire whirls that throw embers a long distance.
"Where the winds are shifting, we have windsheer. You're rotating, and if the fire gets into the boundary where the winds are starting to shift, you can start fire whirls, which lift up the fire and throws out embers," Balfour said.
The phenomenon will become more noticable as the winds continue to shift, Balfour said. Denny O'Neil, a fire behavior analyst, said the southern end of the fire was a big concern.
"If we get that western [wind] push in the afternoon," he said, "a back door could become our front door."
The fire continued to move toward the west. Fire officials said they wanted to keep the fire within the boundary west of Highway 71, south of the Los Angeles-Bernardino County line, east of the 57 Freeway and north of Santiago Creek Road. Brea Police Sgt. Mike Wilson said that the main area of evacution was the San Antonio corridor, Stonehaven and Bryant Ranch.
Brea Police Sgt. Richard Leever said there were reports of looting throughout the night.
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