Freeway Fire Complex - Cause found to be catalytic converter

Birth of a Complex Fire
Shot is from above I-15 in Mira Loma around 230pm when it was really blowing up, it's a panorama HDR shot and on the right you can see the Brea Fire being sucked back into the Freeway Fire.
Photo credit: Dave - CAL FIRE - Yahoo SoCalfire group

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Vehicle debris confirmed as cause of Freeway Complex fire
Fire officials released a report today, confirming the cause of a fire that destroyed 203 homes in O.C.

YORBA LINDA – The debris that shot out of a car's catalytic converter is to blame for the Freeway Complex fire, officials confirmed in a final cause report released Monday.

Preliminary reports in November suggesting that a faulty catalytic converter on the 91 freeway had caused the fire were confirmed Monday, Cal Fire-Riverside County Fire Department Capt. Fernando Herrera said.

He added that officials will likely never know the identity of the vehicle that sparked the Nov. 15 blaze that destroyed 203 homes in Orange County, including 117 in Yorba Linda alone.

"There was never any kind of information from anyone who could identify what kind of vehicle it was … pickup truck or a sedan or a license plate," Herrera said. "Nothing."

He said investigators found honeycomb-shaped pieces that made up the insides of a catalytic converter.

"(The catalytic converter) will actually explode that stuff out. It's a hot debris and that carries a lot of heat. Hot enough to start a fire" Herrera said. "That's more than enough to ignite anything."

Nobody died or was seriously injured during the fire. However, it accounted for the largest loss of homes in Orange County since the Laguna Fire in 1993, according to some reports.

The fire burned 30,305 acres and damaged or destroyed over 350 homes, commercial structures, vehicles and sensitive ecological areas in Chino Hill State Park and the Santa Ana River riparian area.

At its peak, the blaze forced as many as 40,000 residents from their homes across the four counties: Orange, Los Angeles, Riverside and San Bernardino.

Source: Orange County Register - Link