Week In Review

PUBLIC SAFETY

Fairgrounds becomes haven for fire-endangered animals

Orange County Fairgrounds became an emergency shelter last week for more than 80 large animals seeking shelter from wildfires across the region. The fairground’s equestrian facilities took in 84 horses, two burros and two llamas and then began advising horse owners to tie up their horses outside their trailers. Most of the animals came from areas such as Trabuco and Santiago canyons, which were threatened from a fire raging near Irvine, but some came from as far away as Rancho Santa Fe in San Diego County.

BUSINESS

San Diego evacuees and pets fill local hotels in droves

Newport-Mesa hotels had some of their busiest days in memory this week as hundreds of people fled the wildfires in San Diego County and sought accommodation up the coast.

Nearly every hotel in Newport Beach and Costa Mesa reported taking at least some evacuees throughout the week, with some offering reduced rates, suspending their no-pets rules and providing water bottles to tenants who had fled areas with heavy soot in the air.

A number of hotels said they had filled to capacity by Monday evening.

“We have a lot of people coming in who are crying and upset and trying to figure out when they can go back,” said Laraine Lewis, a receptionist at the La Quinta Inn in Costa Mesa.

At some hotels, guests relied on each other — and their laptops — for information on the neighborhoods they had fled earlier in the week.

Susan Mackay, who escaped her home in Fallbrook near San Diego, said she dialed her number every day to make sure that her house was still standing.

“I’ve been trying to talk to everyone I see just to find where they’re from and if they have any news, because it’s hard to get up here,” she said.

“I’ve said hello to everyone I’ve seen and asked, ‘Are you an evacuee?’ Normally, I’m shy, but you can’t be shy on a day like this.”

 In the days after longtime Newport Beach Chamber of Commerce member Art Gronsky passed away in Alaska, friends and colleagues remembered him as a dedicated volunteer and an inspiring mentor.

Gronsky, 87, passed away Oct. 19 while on vacation. He had served with the chamber for 60 years, run the sportfishing company Art’s Landing from 1963 to 1983 and frequently assisted with city events.