The Airport Fire, which injured 21 people and destroyed more than 110 homes in two Southern California counties, stopped spreading this week as firefighters continue to make progress on containment of the blaze.
It started on Sept. 9 at about 1:20 p.m. in Orange County’s Trabuco Canyon and spread to nearly 2,000 acres by the following morning, according to Cal Fire, or the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. By later that night, just before 11:30 p.m., it had exploded to almost 10 times that size — reaching an estimated 19,028 acres by then.
Authorities have said it was unintentionally started by public works crews in the area.
Firefighters have managed to get the containment of the fire up in recent days. As of Saturday, it is still 23,519 acres and 74% contained. Crews said that they anticipated to have full containment early next week.
Earlier this week, an Orange County Fire Authority crew that had just finished a 12-hour shift battling the fire got into a fire truck crash that left eight of them injured, half of them remaining hospitalized with two in critical condition by the following evening. The handcrew had been battling the Airport Fire since it first broke out, OCFA Chief Brian Hennessey said.