A wind and terrain-driven fire chewed through brush in Aliso Wood Canyon between Laguna Niguel and Laguna Beach, burning multiple multimillion-dollar homes.
A swift-moving wildfire which broke out Wednesday afternoon has destroyed at least 20 homes in the upscale Orange County coastal neighborhood of Laguna Niguel and forced dozens to evacuate.
It chewed through brush in Aliso Wood Canyon between Laguna Niguel and Laguna Beach, Orange County Fire Authority Capt. Sean Doran said. "What we experienced was a fire, wind-driven, down a relatively level flat terrain, until it hit the side of that slope," OCFA Chief Brian Fennessy said."And fire is always going to run uphill faster, wind or no wind. But when you have that strong a wind blowing that fire uphill. And if you're familiar with that area, it is extremely steep, extremely thick vegetation that has not burned in probably decades.
The flames advanced even as fixed-wing planes dropped fire retardant on the hillside in hopes of slowing the advance of the flames. Several water-dropping helicopters were also being employed in the firefight.
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