Associate Director of Athletics Mike Farzley and his family were recently among hundreds of Orange County residents who had their routines turned upside down by the mandatory evacuations for the Airport fire. 

On Sept. 9, a county public works crew using heavy equipment to block trail access accidentally set fire near a remote-control airplane runway on Trabuco Canyon Road, authorities said. Less than two hours later, the Orange County Sheriff’s Department issued a voluntary evacuation warning for the Farzleys’ neighborhood, Robinson Ranch, after the fire started to spread through Trabuco Canyon. As the blaze quickly exploded to 800 acres, authorities ordered an evacuation that afternoon.

At the time, Farzley was sitting in his office on campus. 

“My wife had called me and said that [the deputy sheriffs] were making us leave,” Farzley said. “She sent me pictures, and it was pretty eerie because you can see the fire on the hill.”

Though Farzley has lived through several wildfires, none have forced him to evacuate. When his family received the signal to evacuate, they tried their best to stay calm and retreated to Trabuco Hills High School to “find a rally point there.” After the school day had ended, Farzley and his freshman daughter Briana met their family in Mission Viejo and started looking for a hotel.

Farzley described his mindset at that time as “go-mode,” and it wasn’t until his family checked into a hotel in Irvine that he had the opportunity to reflect on what had happened.

He also shared the joy of being with his family in such a difficult time.

“Everything is replaceable, you know, except your family,” he said.

Farzley described the evacuation process as “logistically challenging,” as a stream of cars attempted to leave the foothill neighborhoods. “There was just an ocean of random cars parked in double-parked areas in the street,” he noted.

Besides worrying about his home and neighbors, Farzley said that the biggest challenges were grocery shopping without a kitchen and getting clothes for each day. Different commutes to and from their kids’ schools were also a challenge. 

Despite the disruption that Farzley experienced, he applauded the City of Rancho Santa Margarita for the way they managed this emergency.

“I actually thought they were amazing,” he said. “In that moment, they were quick, and they got everyone off that hill.”

Families received constant updates from the city management and Orange County Fire Authority, which was very comforting, Farzley said. Their neighbors created Facebook and Instagram pages that posted daily updates about the fire and notified families they could go home.

 On Sept. 12, the Farzley family headed back to their house. It was eerie and bizarre driving home with white smoke still swirling around the foothills, he said.

For days, deputy sheriffs prohibited residents from driving in and out of their cul-de-sacs, forcing some to hike uphill to rescue their belongings.

“There were people from the neighborhood who had left their cars at their house when they [evacuated], and now they were kind of becoming the neighborhood Ubers,” Farzley said. He described the community effort of driving stranded people uphill to their houses as one of the most powerful scenes from the fire.

Farzley deeply appreciates the Sage Hill administration for offering to shelter families evacuated during the Airport fire. 

“I feel so lucky to work here,” he said. “People were reaching out who didn’t know what our situation was. Just great, and real positive ‘thinking about you’ [messages],” Farzley said.