Results tagged “fire” from Chino Valley Now
Chino Valley Independent Fire District firefighters responded to three fire calls on Jan. 15. At 7:36 a.m., firefighters were called out to Grand and Roswell avenues to extinguish a plastic fuel can on fire. At 8:57 a.m., firefighters responded to a rubbish fire on Lanier Road in Chino. When firefighters arrived they found a trash container on fire. The fire was contained to the container and extinguished. The fire resulted in a $100 property loss. At 12:14 p.m., firefighters responded to a rubbish fire on Grant Street in Chino at which a resident was burning "sensitive" papers. Fire was extinguished and resident was advised that burning papers was against code. The district responded to a rubbish fire at 7 p.m. on Tuesday at the 13000 block of 4th Street in Chino. Firefighters arrived on scene to find paper and tree debris on fire inside a shopping cart behind the addresses building. The fire was extinguished and scene was cleared.
Firefighters responded to reports of a vehicle fire at 2:06 a.m., Thursday morning at Pine Avenue and Prado Road. Firefighters arrived on scene of an abandoned vehicle in a commercial area. Firefighters extinguished the fire and the police are investigating.
Firefighters on Thursday morning responded to a trash to the 7000 block of Yeager Street in Chino where a resident was burning old paper and magazines on cement walkway at 10:24 a.m. The fire was extinguished and the resident was advised about not burning rubbish.
A fire was reported on Maplewood Drive in Chino Hills which was found to be a five inch in diameter burn mark with ash near a garage. There was no structural damage and the fire was already out when firefighters arrived.
A structure fire was reported at approximately 3:20 a.m. on Wednesday Jan. 7 on the 6700 Block of Mystic Canyon Drive in Chino Hills. Firefighters noted light smoke and found a fire in the garage wall with some extension into the second floor. Units were able to limit the spread of the fire to the to the garage wall and the subfloor of the guest room on the second floor. No injuries were reported. The cause of fire appears to be accidental.
Chino Valley Independent Fire District Fire Chief Paul Benson encourages residents to include fire safety as part of their New Year's resolutions.
Officials say a good way to start the year fire safe is to create a home escape plan by drawing a map/floor plan of the home showing windows and doors that can be used as emergency exits. Smoke detectors should be marked and residents should identify two exits from each room on the map. Smoke detectors should be on every level of the home and in or near sleeping areas.
Residents should select a place outside the home where all can meet after evacuation. The escape plan should be practiced at least twice a year, fire officials said.
Exit drills reduce the chance of panic and injury in fires, and trained and informed people have a much better chance of surviving fires in their home, according to fire officials.
For more information, visit www.chinovalleyfire.org
The power of Mother Nature and the promise of civic redevelopment made 2008 memorable for the city.
A magnitude 5.4 earthquake on July 29 centered near Chino Hills jolted Southern California.
Its epicenter was reported just south of Carbon Canyon Road, near the historic Sleepy Hollow neighborhood by the Orange County line. It was felt as far away as San Diego and Las Vegas.
Barbara Garcia, who lives near the epicenter in the neighborhood of Western Hills, said it was the loudest earthquake she ever heard.
"It was like a boom sound," Garcia said. "It felt literally like the whole house jumped up and down."
The earthquake did not result in injuries or death.
Most property escaped unscathed, although merchandise fell from the shelves of many shops had merchandise fall from shelves.
The Sleepy Hollow area was also the scene in November of the Triangle Complex Fire that ravaged some of the city's hillsides.
Sleepy Hollow resident Jonathan Whitener found himself battling 50-foot-high flames behind his home as the wildfire roared around his hillside neighborhood.
"It was intense to stand there all alone, just you and your house," Whitener said. "It was scary."
The fire burned through 95 percent of the grassland of the Chino Hills State Park. It devastated much of the grass and plant life in the park and resulted in animals migrating to other open land spaces.
No homes were destroyed, but a few residents reported structural damage to their homes as well as property loss.
The city also witnessed a new identity and downtown core as a government center and large outdoor shopping mall opened their doors.
The Shoppes at Chino Hills -- which features 65 upscale retail tenants, including H&M, Trader Joe's and Barnes and Noble -- opened in May.
The 400,000-square-foot shopping center is part of 50 acres that were redeveloped near the southeast corner of Grand Avenue and Peyton Drive.
The development includes the $54 million government center project that features a new City Hall, police station, Fire Department headquarters and a library.
The center is just to the south of the Shoppes at Chino Hills along Peyton and Boy's Republic Drive.
The 30,000-square-foot police station opened in August; the 59,000-square-foot City Hall as well as the 16,000-square-foot Chino Valley Independent Fire District headquarters opened in November; and the new James S. Thalman Library is tentatively set to open in early February.
Chino Valley Independent Fire District firefighters responded to a report of a fire by locals in a single-family dwelling on the 400 block of Torrey Pines in Chino Hills at 4:14 a.m. Friday, Dec. 26.
Upon investigation, firefighters found that a candle placed ina fiberglass enclosure along with other Christmas decorations caused the early-morning blaze. The candle in the fiberglass caught the decorations and the enclosure itself on fire.
Residents were alerted of the fire by a smoke detector. The home owners extinguished the fire with a garden hose before firefighters arrived. One occupant sustained minor smoke inhalation.
Fire Chief Paul Benson encourages residents about the importance of having working smoke detectors in the home. By properly selecting, placing, testing, and maintaining smoke detectors, residents greatly increase the chances of surviving a home fire.
Mud and debris from soil loosened by the large Triangle Complex wildfire last month flowed through the Sleepy Hollow neighborhood on Monday but did not cause any major damage or evacuations.
About 2.6 inches of rain fell in Chino Hills in the storm. Eucalyptus Avenue, from Peyton Drive to Pipeline Avenue, and Carbon Canyon Road at the Orange County line were closed over concern about mudslides. Mudflow also caused the closure of Hay Drive at Grand Avenue in Sleepy Hollow, though it was reopened Monday afternoon.
No serious damage from mudflows was reported in areas burned last month, but Public Works Department crews used heavy equipment to clear mud from driveways in Sleepy Hollow.
Officials handed out sandbags to residents at the Sleepy Hollow community center and Chino Valley Independent Fire Department stations 2 and 4.
On the west side of the Chino Hills where 100 homes were lost to the fire in Yorba Linda, hundreds of homes in the canyon areas were ordered evacuated Monday morning because of the threat of mudslides. But the threat eased later in the day.
Meanwhile, Chino Hills state park officials were anxiously waiting for the rains to abate in order to assess any mudflows over crucial roadways in and out of the park. The park is still closed and will be for some time if roads are blocked by mudslides at the entrance to the park, said John Rowe, sector superintendent for the Chino Hills State Park.
The 1,500 city residents who were evacuated late Saturday night and early Sunday morning can relax easier.
The Triangle Complex Fire was 100 percent contained on Wednesday with 30,305 acres burned over four counties in Southern California in a vast area stretching across a northern Orange County.
With an estimated 13,102 acres burned in Chino Hills, residents and officials have called the zero loss of homes in the city a miracle.
"I think in a situation like this we are extremely grateful for all of the efforts of our firefighters and law enforcement personnel and everyone that assisted in a situation like this," said city spokeswoman Valerie McClung.
Officials said they are now in the process of reviewing lessons learned from the event.
"We'll do a complete analysis and overview of the entire event from when it started on Saturday morning," McClung said. "We'll take a look and see how we did and how our staff responded to see what we can do better in that situation and look at everything that happened from the time it started to the time it ended."
Authorities are still assessing the amount of damaging to property in Chino Hills, though in total, the property damage stemming from the entire fire are estimated at $1.4 million and there were 14 minor injuries reported.
In the Chino Hills area there were an estimated 32 strike teams, each comprised of five engines; 22 crews with about 400 fire fighters; 15 bulldozers; and 11 water tenders.
By Wednesday, about 2,784 fire fighters were wrapping up the fight with small mop up operations throughout the fire zone, said Chino Valley Independent Fire District spokeswoman Maciel Ladron De Guevara.
"We just want to thank the residents with complying with the evacuation orders and to know it's really for their safety and it's a great help to the firefighters that they comply," said De Guevara. "We're very grateful to them. We understand it's a difficult time and we appreciate their cooperations."
City Manager Doug La Belle thanked residence for their patience.
"There was much work to be done to patrol for hot spots, repair power poles, remove boulders, and debris from the roadway before Canyon residents could return home. The danger is not over when the smoke and flames die down," he said. "The historic neighborhoods in the canyon have narrow roads, flammable vegetation, and difficult access. Fire apparatus must have access in and out of those communities to ensure that the fire does not flare up."
Below is a statement from Dough La Belle, City Manager for the city of Chino Hills:
"The City of Chino Hills is extremely grateful for the efforts of everyone involved, especially the firefighters and law enforcement personnel. We are so fortunate that 13,102 acres burned in Chino Hills and not one family lost their home. Coordination between the Fire District, the City, and the Police Department was effective. The City's new website tools gave our residents access to timely information on our website and through our E-Notify system.
Our City channel and hotline provided information as staff at the Chino Valley Fire District manned the phones throughout the incident. The Red Cross cared for people, the Inland Valley Humane Society cared for animals, and many residents came forward to help their neighbors. Surviving a devastating wildfire is never easy and we thank our residents for their patience as evacuation orders remained in effect.
There was much work to be done to patrol for hot spots, repair power poles, remove boulders, and debris from the roadway before Canyon residents could return home. The danger is not over when the smoke and flames die down. The historic neighborhoods in the canyon have narrow roads, flammable vegetation, and difficult access. Fire apparatus must have access in and out of those communities to ensure that the fire does not flare up. Sleepy Hollow is an island that survived in the middle of an area that was completed burned. The last devastating fire in Carbon Canyon was in 1990 when 16 homes were lost.
Now that the fire is over, we are in the process of gathering information to see what we can learn from this incident."
The School District has determined that due to the poor air quality in the Chino Valley, all Chino Valley Unified School District schools, offices and departments will be closed on Monday, Nov. 17. It is anticipated that air quality will improve for classes to resume on Tuesday. Updates are available at www.chino.k12.ca.us or (909) 548-6080.
The "Triangle Complex" wildfire that swept through a large part of north Orange County since Saturday caused an evacuation of over 1,500 Chino Hills residents who fled their homes from encroaching flames early Sunday morning.
By 8 p.m. Saturday evening, the fire was sweeping down the hills from Yorba Linda in the south and northward through Chino Hills State Park, threatening homes in the Carbon Canyon area and causing an evacuation of the entire Carbon Canyon community. Areas east of Carbon Canyon, south of Peyton Drive and in the Los Serranos Ranch area of the city were also evacuated by city officials who opened up an Emergency Operations Center at the new government Civic Center.
Hector Fernandez, of Los Serranos Ranch, has lived in Chino Hills since 1998 and has never been evacuated. He remembers watching the flames rage down the hillside near his home before he evacuated early Sunday morning with his wife and their small dog Trixie.
"This is the worst I've ever seen it," he said.
Andy Kim of the Oak Tree Downs neighborhood also evacuated with his 2 1/2-year-old son Jay, and his wife Ashley.
"We were scared," he said of the evacuation. "This is the first time in my life that this has ever happened."
About 500 evacuated residents, including children, spent the night at Ayala High School, where the gym was transformed into a makeshift Red Cross shelter with food and cots available for evacuees. Donated water, snacks, meals, toys, even baby supplies, were available for residents at the shelter. All State Insurance set up a booth at the door.
Also by Sunday afternoon, Chino Hills officials began allowing some residents to return to their neighborhoods. Passes allowing re-entry were available for residents of Soquel Canyon, generally the Los Serranos Rancho area; the Glenmeade area, between Peyton Drive and Pipeline Avenue, and from Valley Vista South with the exception of Bayberry Drive, Autumn Avenue, Branle Street, Coronet Street and Zenobia Lane.
The city declared a local state of emergency at 5:30 a.m. on Sunday, to allow the city to start requesting mutual aid and other supplies and services that may be required to respond to the emergency.
As of Sunday afternoon, authorities said two structures, including a carport, had sustained minor damage at unknown locations, through no homes were destroyed and officials reported no injuries or deaths related to the fire.
By Sunday afternoon, officials reported the blaze was travelling in a westerly direction, toward Diamond Bar, though there were still active blazes being suppressed by fire officials in Chino Hills and small "islands" of the Chino Hills State Park" were still burning. A structural threat was also in existed in the area south of Pipeline Avenue and air crews were still battling the blaze in the Sleepy Hollow area, officials said.
"We're making good progress in the area," said Chino Valley Independnet Fire District spokeswoman Massiel Ladron De Guevara. "The structure threat has diminished significantly in the area of Mystic Canyon."
Elsewhere the Triangle Complex Fire continued to grow Sunday, threatening thousands of homes in four counties.
Fed by Santa Ana winds, low humidity and temperatures in the mid-90s, the fire had burned 10,500 acres and threatened more than 3,500 structures in Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Riverside and Orange counties.
The fire started around 9 a.m. Saturday morning. There was no containment on the fire by midday Sunday, according to Cal Fire, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
A Red Flag Warning was in effect until 4 p.m. Sunday, according to the National Weather Service.
The Triangle Fire and fires in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara counties had destroyed more than 800 houses, mobile homes and apartments and burned more than 34 square miles since breaking out Thursday. The Triangle Fire itself had damaged or destroyed 64 buildings, including 104 homes.
In Anaheim, 10 houses were damaged or destroyed, along with 10 apartment buildings, for a total of 60 homes.
In Yorba Linda, 70 homes had been destroyed or damaged, and 16 residences had been destroyed or damaged in Corona. The blaze destroyed Brea High School's main building.
The cause of the Triangle Fire was still under investigation and numerous agencies in the four counties, including 1,200 firefighting personnel, 75 engines, a bulldozer, 18 helicopters and 12 air tankers are battling the blaze.
The fire began in Riverside County at the 91 Freeway and Green River Road and then headed east of Weir Canyon.
There were no major injuries as a result of the fire, though the Orange County Fire Authority was reporting six firefighters had received minor injuries as of Sunday afternoon.
More than 1,400 Diamond Bar residents were evacuated from high-end homes and a Boy Scout camp.
The evacuations were in the Country Estates Community and the Country Park area.
Parts of Yorba Linda, Brea and Anaheim were also evacuated.
The city of Chino Hills and the Chino Valley Independent Fire District will celebrate ribbon cutting ceremonies and VIP receptions for the new city hall and new fire administration building on Friday from 4 p.m to 7 p.m.
The new 59,000 square foot Chino Hills Government Center City Hall, located at 14000 City Center, officially opened for business last week. The first city council meeting is scheduled for Nov. 12.
The new 16,000 square foot Chino Valley Independent Fire District Administration building also opened for business last week. The new building is two and a half times larger than its current building at the old civic center.
Recent Comments