3 Brush Fires Along 73 Toll Road Held To 8 Acres

LAGUNA BEACH, CA — Multiple brush fires scorched about 8 acres along the southbound San Joaquin Hills(73) Toll Road west of Laguna Canyon Road Wednesday afternoon, forcing the closure of the toll lanes and a nearby wilderness park.

The fires were reported at 3:03 p.m., and by 5:30 p.m., crews had stopped the forward progress of the blazes.

"We've made significant progress" on extinguishing the blazes, Doran said around 5 p.m. Firefighters are "collectively making good progress on it" with air drops and ground crews with bulldozers.

Firefighters were set to remain on the scene throughout the night to extinguish the remaining hot spots.

There was no immediate word of any structure damage or injuries and investigators were at the scene to determine a cause of the fires, the OCFA reported.

"We have a multiple-alarm fire and dozers, hand crews, fixed-wing and rotary aircraft making drops," said Orange County Fire Authority Captain Sean Doran, announcing a strategy at the outset of the fires. "We are making aggressive attacks on all fronts."

The three separate blazes were "along this area within 300 yards of each other," Doran said.

"There was one small spot fire we had go across to the northbound side, but we made that a priority drop" and it was quickly extinguished, Doran said.

One of the fires was along the Newport Coast, he added.

The 73 Toll Road was shut down in both directions due to the brush fires. The southbound 73 was stopped just past the tolls and at El Toro Road. On the northbound side, Laguna Canyon Road remained open.

The fires also shut down the Laguna Coast Wilderness Park.

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City News Service contributed to this report.