LOS ANGELES — Fierce Santa Ana winds caused a chaotic afternoon as a fast-moving fire burned through multiple hillside homes in south Orange County while a nearby blaze in San Onofre shut down the 5 Freeway for hours.

Hot, smoky conditions forced residents in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano to flee and created traffic gridlock from Orange County to Oceanside as the key north-south highway was affected by multiple fires just miles apart.

The Norte fire ignited in bushy foothills south of San Juan Capistrano around noon and quickly grew to 465 acres, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. Six homes were damaged in a hillside enclave of multimillion-dollar properties near Via La Mirada, as officials urged residents to heed evacuation orders and head to local emergency shelters.

Linda Verraster was on the deck behind her home in San Clemente, just south of the evacuation zone, on Friday afternoon, watching for signs it might be time to leave.

Temperatures in the area were in the mid-90s and winds howled with gusts of up to 35 mph, a less-than-ideal situation for firefighters.

Verraster had already filled her cars with gas and began preparing what she would grab if the fire kept growing.

“We’re watching the wind. I’m getting my cat carriers ready just in case,” she said. “It’s not great.”

The Orange County conflagration was the latest incident in a hectic 24 hours for fire crews in Southern California.

On Thursday, the Henderson fire ignited at Camp Pendleton, followed by the Bryson fire near Encinal Canyon in Malibu that evening. By Friday evening, the Henderson fire had burned 2,080 acres with no containment, while the Bryson fire had burned 147 acres with 39% containment, leaving a small number of Malibu residents under evacuation orders.

In addition, a 20-acre vegetation fire dubbed the Scales fire ignited close to the Henderson fire along the 5 Freeway in San Onofre, prompting the temporary closure of north and southbound freeway lanes from around noon to 5 p.m. Friday.

A red-flag alert remains in effect for Los Angeles and Ventura counties until 8 p.m. Saturday. The dangerous conditions led Southern California Edison to cut power to more than 130,000 customers, including around 57,000 households in L.A. County, where sizzling temperatures soared into the high 90s.

On the first night of Southern California’s fires Thursday, the crescent moon was the only source of light across homes nestled beneath Boney Mountain in Ventura County and across much of the Santa Monica Mountains due to the ongoing outages. By morning, firefighting aircraft were back in the air dropping water on the Bryson fire in Malibu while the sound of generators purchased by outage-weary residents and business owners buzzed through the canyons.

Rose Garcia, a Simi Valley parent, said parents at Sycamore Elementary School received a text at 6 a.m. Friday saying that the school would remain open during outages, although not all classrooms can operate off generators. A heat advisory is in effect in coastal areas of Los Angeles and Ventura counties until Saturday evening.

“My son has asthma so with no air conditioning and no air filtration, I wasn’t having him there,” she said, adding that “a power outage used to be considered an emergency but is now just accepted.”

Temperatures along the coast are of key concern for fires. Leo Carrillo State Park in Malibu had already reached a toasty 93 degrees by 11 a.m. Friday, according to the weather service.

“This morning through this afternoon is our most critical period of time during this red-flag event: Strong winds and very dry conditions will continue to cause fire starts to spread rapidly,” said Kevin McGowan, director of the county office of emergency management. “We’re urging everyone to remain vigilant and ready to act.”

On Friday morning, firefighters around the Bryson fire were working to ensure flames did not jump over Encinal Canyon Road, which would place a much larger hillside area under threat, said L.A. County Fire Chief Anthony Marrone. The blaze sparked evacuation orders for the Encinal Canyon area near Trancas Canyon and put a larger swath of Malibu under an evacuation warning.

Wind speeds were expected in the 50 to 70 mph range through early afternoon Friday before gradually weakening.

In Newbury Park, a shopping center on Reino Road was among the thousands of Edison customers affected by power shutoffs. The nearby Ragamuffin Coffee Roasters, however, was packed with customers as owners had purchased a generator in hopes of avoiding future business closures. At a local Autozone there was a run on gas cans as people rushed to purchase fuel to power their generators.

SCE spokesperson Diane Castro said there are many factors the utility considers when deciding when and where to implement outages, noting that these policies are being constantly revised.

“There’s about 2,000 weather stations and then 200 wildfire cameras, and these crews who are on the ground actively patrolling the circuits and looking at real-time weather and ... conditions,” she said.

L.A. County Sheriff Robert Luna said the department has augmented its patrol officers in areas affected by evacuations and public safety power outages.

“If you think you’re going to come in and take advantage of these poor folks who have been asked to evacuate or don’t have power,” he said, “you’re going to run into probably deputies who aren’t in uniform and who are just out there specifically looking for that challenge.”

The intense Santa Ana wind gusts are providing the first major test of whether city and county agencies have applied lessons learned from the devastation of the Palisades and Eaton fires.

Mayor Karen Bass noted that Los Angeles fire officials had pre-deployed personnel and resources to potential fire hot spots including the San Fernando Valley, Santa Monica Mountains and Hollywood in anticipation of the red-flag conditions.

Reviews of the Los Angeles Fire Department response to the January 2025 firestorm revealed critical failures to pre-stage resources. In particular, fire officials drew heat for failing to pre-deploy engines to Pacific Palisades, despite forecasters warning of extreme fire weather conditions.

In addition to the pre-deployed L.A. Fire teams, the L.A. County Fire Department has bolstered its on-duty staff by about 100 personnel, and additional firefighting crews have been sent to Southern California by the governor’s Office of Emergency Services.

On Friday, Los Angeles County Supervisor Lindsey Horvath highlighted the $77 million and 44 new positions funneled into the county’s Office of Emergency Management. A review of the Eaton fire found county agencies struggled to monitor rapidly unfolding events and operated with unclear policies for sending evacuation orders.

“We will continue to make those investments,” said Horvath. “We will continue to support our departments and make sure that emergency preparedness remains a top priority for the county.”

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