A wildfire broke out Monday nearby Irvine, the affluent Orange County city, forcing 60,000 people to evacuate and severely injuring two firefighters by mid-afternoon. The Silverado Fire, named for its source in the Silverado Canyon area, started early Monday morning and had burned over 4,000 acres with zero containment by 3 p.m PT. Fanned by unusually high winds, the fire jumped Highway 241, a major freeway that served as a protective fire break, and forced several road closures. Twenty-thousand homes were evacuated and 500 firefighters were working on the scene, per Orange County Fire’s public information officer. A second Orange County fire named the Green Fire also broke out in nearby Yorba Linda, with CNN reporting that nearby UC Irvine was forced to suspend almost all on-campus operations due to hazardous smoke and ash in the air.
.
Read it at USA Today
