{"id":500796,"date":"2026-10-19T06:10:12","date_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:10:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/500796\/"},"modified":"2026-10-19T06:10:12","modified_gmt":"2026-10-19T06:10:12","slug":"orange-county-resident-describes-jumping-into-action-when-norte-fire-broke-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/500796\/","title":{"rendered":"Orange County resident describes jumping into action when Norte Fire broke out"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao MvWXB TjIXL aGjvy ebVHC \">SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif.  (KABC) &#8212; When the<a class=\"zZygg UbGlr iFzkS qdXbA WCDhQ DbOXS tqUtK GpWVU iJYzE \" data-testid=\"prism-linkbase\" href=\"https:\/\/abc7.com\/live-updates\/southern-california-fire-watch-red-flag-high-wind-warnings-effect\/19941220\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"> Norte Fire broke out in Orange County<\/a> Friday morning, Justin Ziegler and his dad spotted the flames from a distance. When they saw it getting closer to homes, they jumped into action.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;It looks like a scene from a movie. There&#8217;s just fire everywhere,&#8221; Ziegler said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">He and his dad urged one family to leave who were still scrambling to get last-minute items from their home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;The kid didn&#8217;t want to move. He was kinda staring out the doorway of what looked like a hellscape. Just his world on fire. I helped kinda guide the kid along and helped get them in their car. She dropped some of her things on the ground and I helped her pick them up, shoved them in the car and we took off.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">That same neighbor shared an image of the raging fire encroaching on her backyard before escaping danger with Ziegler.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">When asked by Eyewitness News why he put himself in harm&#8217;s way,  Ziegler replied: &#8220;I wouldn&#8217;t necessarily call it harm&#8217;s way, I would just call it the right thing to do.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;I think the important thing is that we need to be nice to each other. We need to be kind to each other.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Doorbell camera video shows another neighbor, Ephraim Taylor, rushing to collect water to throw on an active flame.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;We&#8217;re lucky that there was still water. If there hadn&#8217;t been water, that would have been some real trouble,&#8221; Taylor said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Now that evacuation orders have been lifted, residents are confronted with what the fire left behind.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">Jessie Ewell spotted several red-tagged homes, including one that was burned to the ground. His own home was spared.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">&#8220;Obviosuly, you feel really bad for your neighbors and stuff like that&#8230; It&#8217;s devastating.<\/p>\n<p class=\"EkqkG IGXmU nlgHS yuUao lqtkC TjIXL aGjvy \">A total of seven homes were severely damaged or destroyed near San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026 KABC Television, LLC. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. (KABC) &#8212; When the Norte Fire broke out in Orange County Friday morning, Justin&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[194033,163,165,164],"class_list":["post-500796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-anaheim","tag-194033","tag-anaheim","tag-anaheim-headlines","tag-anaheim-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=500796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/500796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/500797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=500796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=500796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=500796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}