Orange County supervisors Tuesday approved spending $33 million to settle a large batch of claims made in relation to the September 2024 Airport Fire.
The supervisors voted 4-0, with Supervisor Vicente Sarmiento absent, in a closed-door meeting to settle 592 claims for 193 households represented by the Singleton Schreiber law firm.
Orange County Board of Supervisors Chairman Doug Chaffee said about 2,000 claims have been settled altogether.
“A lot of them were small claims, some were duplicates,” Chaffee said. “We tried to get rid of all the small ones first.”
The board voted to pay $9.5 million to settle various claims last April.
The Airport Fire, which started Sept. 9, 2024, blackened 23,526 acres in Orange and Riverside counties, injuring 21 people.
Officials said the fire was sparked by a county public works crew using heavy equipment. The cause was deemed accidental.
On Sept. 19, 2024, eight firefighters were injured when a transport truck carrying an Orange County Fire Authority hand crew swerved and rolled over on the northbound Foothill (241) Toll Road in Irvine as they were heading back to the Airport Fire command post after completing a 12-hour shift on the fire line.