Norte fire: Evacuations, shelters

Sunday, October 18, 2026 4:47PMWhen the Norte Fire broke out in Orange County Friday morning, many neighbors jumped into action to help each other. KABCSAN JUAN CAPISTRANO, Calif. (KABC) -- When the Norte Fire broke out in Orange County 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. "It looks like a scene from a movie. There's just fire everywhere," Ziegler said. He and his dad urged one family to leave who were still scrambling to get last-minute items from their home. "The kid didn'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. "That same neighbor shared an image of the raging fire encroaching on her backyard before escaping danger with Ziegler. When asked by Eyewitness News why he put himself in harm's way, Ziegler replied: "I wouldn't necessarily call it harm's way, I would just call it the right thing to do.

Fierce Santa Ana winds caused a chaotic afternoon as a fast-moving fire burned through multiple hillside homes in south Orange County while a nearby blaze in San Onofre shut down the 5 Freeway for hours. Hot, smoky conditions forced residents in San Clemente and San Juan Capistrano to flee and created traffic gridlock from Orange County to Oceanside as the key north-south highway was impacted by multiple fires just miles apart. The Norte fire ignited in bushy foothills south of San Juan Capistrano around noon and quickly grew to 465 acres, according to the Orange County Fire Authority. Six homes were damaged in a hillside enclave of multimillion-dollar properties near Via La Mirada, as officials urged residents to heed evacuation orders and head to local emergency shelters. Linda Verraster was on the deck behind her home in San Clemente, just south of the evacuation zone, on Friday afternoon, watching for signs it might be time to leave. Temperatures in the area were in the mid-90s and winds howled with gusts of up to 35 mph, a less-than-ideal situation for firefighters. Verraster had already filled her cars with gas and began preparing what she would grab if the fire kept growing.

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A Rhode Island man was arrested Sunday morning for allegedly breaking into and damaging an Attleboro middle school and assaulting multiple police officers, police said. Jamison Grover, 25, of Pawtucket, faces three counts of assault and battery on a police officer, breaking and entering in the nighttime, and other charges, Attleboro Police said. He is scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Attleboro District Court. Grover also allegedly took property belonging to a student from the school and damaged 13 window screens, for which he faces an additional 13 counts of malicious destruction of property over $1,200, police said. Officers responded to Brennan Middle School on Rathbun Willard Drive around 4:45 a.m. on Sunday after an alarm system in the building registered motion in several locations, police said. A search of the school revealed numerous lockers had been “rummaged through,” police said. Grover was located after officers determined he had allegedly entered one of their police cruisers while it was parked outside during their investigation, police said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A National Guard member was shot and injured while trying to break up a fight in the nation’s capital, and the person suspected of firing the gun also was shot in an exchange with guard members, police said Monday. The shooting happened at about 11:10 p.m. Sunday as seven or eight guard members in a parked van were monitoring the fight on a sidewalk in southeast Washington, in the Eastern Market neighborhood, said Jeffery Carroll, interim chief of the Metropolitan Police Department of Washington. “They exited their vehicle to try to intervene to try to stop the fight from occurring when they heard gunshots,” Carroll told reporters. “An individual that had been involved in the fight had pulled out a firearm and began shooting.”The person ran into an alley, Carroll said, and guard members immediately told the person to drop the gun. “The individual then pointed the weapon toward National Guard members, who returned fire,” Carroll said. Get Starting PointA guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter EmailHe said one guard member was struck in the leg and the suspect was shot in the abdomen.