The Airport Fire forced mandatory evacuation orders in various Southern California communities, particularly in Lake Elsinore and along Ortega Highway where many structures were damaged or destroyed.

Two employees were placing large boulders as barriers on Trabuco Creek Road to prevent the public — primarily motorcyclists — from accessing a dry brush area of the canyon with a high fire risk.

[7] On September 12, authorities lifted the mandatory evacuations in Rancho Santa Margarita and allowed residents to return home; new orders were put in place along the Orange County portion of Ortega Highway the same day.

[9] The Airport Fire produced a large pyrocumulus cloud, worsening the air quality in the immediate area and nearby population centers in Orange and Riverside counties.

Winds blowing east carried the smoke as far as Las Vegas, creating a thick enough haze to delay flights at Harry Reid International Airport.

[12] Damage assessment teams were limited in the initial days of the fire as conditions remained too dangerous to provide access to areas inside the burn zone.

[13][14] On the evening of September 19, eight firefighters from OCFA's Santiago Handcrew were injured in a rollover crash on State Route 241 in Irvine while returning from a 12-hour shift working on the Airport Fire.

[16] Five congressional representatives wrote to the Cleveland National Forest leadership, questioning their choices in handling understaffing, and specifically highlighting how the issue contributed, in their view, to the severity and spread of the Airport Fire.