Blaze chars oil field

Fire crews from around the county worked for hours to contain a brush fire in the oil fields near Talbert Nature Reserve in Costa Mesa on Tuesday. The fire burned about one acre of brush but did not threaten any homes, officials said.

Fire officials don’t know what caused the fire, but said that children sometimes play in the area and that transients have been known to live in the brush.

“It was a brush fire that was probably started by transients,” said Tom McCloskey, manager of the West Newport Oil Fields.

The oil fields are private property, and nobody saw anyone leaving the property, Costa Mesa Fire Battalion Chief Scott Broussard said.

Tuesday’s brush fire could have been much worse if the weather conditions were different and Santa Ana winds were present, officials said. The heavy brush kept the fire from spreading quickly, Broussard said.

The northeasterly winds did present some concern that the fire would blow toward Costa Mesa homes bordering the oilfields. Several fire trucks were positioned to protect homes on top of the bluffs just in case the fire swept up hill, Broussard said.

“We are concerned about it getting up into the homes,” Broussard said.

Costa Mesa resident Jill Maggs called 911 when she saw the smoke around noon Tuesday.

“We smelled smoke ? we could hear the crackling,” said Maggs, whose home backs up to the oilfields.

After residents reported the fire, engines from Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, Costa Mesa and the Orange County Fire Authority responded.

Crews worked to put out the fire with the help of a water-dumping helicopter and crews on the ground, who cut back brush and laid hose lines.

Several times the wind blew hot embers and started spot fires outside the one-acre area.

The air around the fire was filled with smoke and ash Tuesday, and the sounds of chain saws and bulldozers clearing brush could be heard throughout the oil fields.

By 3 p.m. Tuesday, fire officials said the brush fire was mostly contained, but crews would remain on scene to put out any hot spots. dpt.17-fire-CPhotoInfoN81R17QQ20060517izdxymncMARK DUSTIN / DAILY PILOT(LA)Todd Lockwood of the Orange County Fire Authority hoses down a hot spot in the West Newport Oil Fields on Tuesday.