OC work crew that started Airport fire ignored ‘best practices’

The Orange County public works crew that sparked the 23,526-acre Airport fire while moving boulders with heavy machinery failed to follow department “best practices” and bring a water truck for such emergencies, county documents show.

“Someone didn’t follow directives,” a high-level public works official said in a Microsoft Teams message with another executive less than an hour after the blaze broke out.

A spokesperson for the Public Works Department did not respond to a request for comment Friday, Nov. 29 . A county investigation into the fire is ongoing.

Emails and chat messages obtained through a public records request by the Southern California News Group show the anxiety levels of department officials rising in the early stages of the fire that burned for 26 days through Orange and Riverside counties, destroying 160 structures, injuring 22 people and forcing thousands to flee their homes. The internal communications were first reported by LAist.

The work crew was dispatched the morning of Sept. 9 to the Trabuco Creek area near the Trabuco Flyers club as part of an ongoing job to place boulders along the roadway to block off-road vehicles from entering private property. The project — in triple-digit heat on a day when the fire rating was “high” — was requested by landowners.

A work order for the job names one supervisor and two laborers.

At 1:21 p.m., the crew noticed smoke coming from the basket of a construction loader, heavy machinery used to move materials, such as boulders. The machine operator and a supervisor tried unsuccessfully to douse the flames with multiple fire extinguishers while calling 911. The crew did not have a water truck, which has a capacity of thousands of gallons and are designed, among other things, for fire suppression.

The bad news quickly reached Edward Frondoso, public works deputy director of operations and maintenance, who was tasked with telling his boss, then county Engineer Kevin Onuma. Onuma is now acting director of the department after the sudden, post-fire departure of Director James Treadaway.

In a Microsoft Teams chat with Fiona Man, deputy director of construction, Frondoso laid out the news he would be bringing to Onuma.

Frondoso: “i’m going to talk about that we f—ing started a fire.”

“and it’s bad.”

Man responds: “WE???”

Frondoso: “and we have a guy _________ (redacted by the county.)”

Frondoso adds, “ttyl lol,” shorthand for “talk to you later, laugh out loud.”

Man: “sh-t”

“what happened”

Frondoso: “i was trying not to put it on teams”

“Someone didn’t follow directives”

The next day, Frondoso messaged Nina Quimsing, an operations and maintenance manager: “on the work order it shows what equipment will be used, but I know yesterday morning Bud had asked them to take the water truck out.”

Quimsing messaged back that the use of a water truck, or “water buffalo,” is considered “BMP,” or a best management practice.

“It is up to the crew to use BMPs where appropriate. But our Field Operations Manual activity guidelines state ‘use appropriate BMP.’ For every maintenance activity,” Quimsing wrote.

Frondoso asks if the department has ever delayed a project because of fire safety concerns.

The messaging among high-level public works officials indicates the crew was aware the fire danger was high on the day it ignited the blaze. The Public Works Department had checked the fire danger rating with the Orange County Fire Authority at 10 a.m. and relayed the news to the crew.

But the work continued.

As the fire grew, so did the angst among Frondoso and public works staffers.

Wrote Frondoso to Man: “It’s growing so fast.”

And later to Jermaine Harris, a project manager: “holy crap, it’s growing faster and faster.”

Shannon Widor, a spokesperson for the department, suggested to Frondoso that mental health counselors be made available to the staff.

“I’m seeing a lot of less-than-savory comments posted online, directly aimed at us,” wrote Widor, advising counseling be provided for staff.

“I’m sure they have a lot on their minds and dealing with a lot right now.”

On Sept. 9, when it became clear the fire was getting out of hand, Frondoso said in a message to Man: “I wish that guy had just listened to his directives.”

Besides the lack of a water truck, the fire alerted public works officials to another problem — flood monitor cameras along Trabuco Creek have been dysfunctional for several months. Onuma pointed out in a message to Widor within minutes of the fire that the malfunctioning cameras could become an issue if fire damage causes flooding during storm season.

Widor, in an email to the Southern California News Group, explained that the cameras were offline because of weak cell service in a remote area. Staff has been upgrading the equipment. While one camera is now working, the other keeps quickly depleting the power source.

Widor said the department is planning to have the cameras fully functional before the anticipated rainy season.