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The story of San Juan as told by its students

The Express
The story of San Juan as told by its students

The Express
The story of San Juan as told by its students

The Express
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Airport Fire Rages Through Orange, Riverside County

Claire Stafford, Feature Editor • September 24, 2024
Bill Kaiser
An enormous pyrocumulus cloud formed over the Airport Fire while students in P.E. endured scorching heat on the practice field on Sept. 9. Pyrocumulus clouds occur when hot air from a fire causes moisture in the air to condense, forming a cloud. Sometimes these clouds can create their own weather conditions including lighting.

The Orange and Riverside County Airport Fire burned over 23,494 acres of land, leaving around 120 homes destroyed and 14 people injured. The fire ignited on Monday, September 9, and is not yet contained.

According to the Orange County Register, the fire was started unintentionally by heavy equipment in proximity to Trabuco RC Flyers Club in Trabuco Canyon. As of September 17th, 31% of the fire is contained. Due to concerns about the fire spreading, ELC01, RVC-1521-A, RVC-1622-A, RVC-1724-B, RVC-1725-B, RVC-1798-A, and RVC-1865-B zones were told to evacuate forcing more than 19,000 people to leave their homes. Some of them are members of the SJHHS community. 

“I had to evacuate yesterday [September 11th]. My mom texted me around noon that we might have to evacuate. At 2 p.m., many sheriffs drove up to the neighborhood, tagged everyone’s house, and told everyone it was a mandatory evacuation. I was at school so I didn’t have to evacuate myself. My mom and dad stayed home from work because they were concerned about the fire,” said Maggie Flores who was forced to evacuate.

A helicopter air tanker drops water near communications equipment on Santiago Peak. CalFire air attack crews battled the Airport Fire using a variety of aircraft because of the difficult terrain. In the end, 23,519 were burned in the human-caused incident. Photo courtesy of UC San Diego Alert California

Fortunately, Flores, her family, and home remained unimpacted. 

“Our house and community haven’t been affected. The fire was close and it did jump the Ortega to our side since the fire was headed north and the winds didn’t change. We were okay,” said Flores.

For those ordered to evacuate, several shelters are open to house people and animals. For more information on shelter locations, visit CAL OES News.

The fires have impacted commute times for those traveling from the Lake Elsinore area. Additionally, many SJHHS sports practices were canceled last week due to air quality concerns resulting from the fire.

The airport fire is one of three major fires currently burning throughout Southern California. According to the Washington Post and CAL Fire, the Bridge Fire is affecting the San Bernardino area, which is just over 54,795 acres. The Line Fire also started in the San Bernardino area was caused by arson and currently spans 39,111 acres. 

Because all three of these major fires started and burned all around the same time, containment and allocation of resources have been a major issue. However, the cooler weather has aided firefighters in making progress in containing the wildfires.

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About the Contributors
Claire Stafford
Claire Stafford, Feature Editor
Claire Stafford is a senior at San Juan Hills High School and is excited for her third year on The Express. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her friends, going to the beach, reading, and traveling. She is looking forward to deepening her knowledge of journalism as the Feature Editor of The Express this year! After high school, Claire plans to attend a four-year university and a carrer in law.
Mylan West
Mylan West, Staff Writer
Mylan West is a senior at San Juan Hills High School and joined The Express last year. She wants to learn about interesting topics, write feature stories, and take photos revolving around school. Interests of hers are journaling, listening to music, traveling, and spending quality time with family, friends and cats. In the future, she wants to attend college and have a career in law. 
Bill Kaiser
Bill Kaiser, Adviser
Mr. Kaiser is currently in his 24th year as a media adviser in CUSD and was San Juan Hills High School's 2019 Teacher of the Year. He also teaches AP government to seniors and world history to sophomores. His passions include carpentry, photography, fire lookout work, hiking, fishing and being with his family when he's not working with student journalists on The Express. In the 2020-21 school year his students were recognized nationally 13 times for outstanding scholastic journalism both before and after the Covid-19 outbreak. In 2013 The Express won Best of Show for a high school newspaper 12 page broadsheet at the JEA/NSPA spring convention in San Diego.
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