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Orange County, California (U.S.)

image by Jens Pattke, 29 April 2001

Description of the flag
Orange County Fire Authority
Seal

- indicates flag is known.
- indicates it is reported that there is no known flag.

Municipal flags in Orange County:

Aliso Viejo
Anaheim
Brea
Buena Park
Costa Mesa
Cypress
Dana Point
Fountain Valley
Fullerton
Garden Grove
Huntington Beach

Irvine
Laguna Beach
Laguna Niguel
Laguna Woods
La Habra
La Palma
Lake Forest
Los Alamitos
Mission Viejo
Newport Beach
Orange

Placentia
Rancho Santa Margarita
San Clemente
Santa Ana
San Juan Capistrano
Seal Beach
Stanton
Tustin
Villa Park
Westminster
Yorba Linda

See also:

Counties of California
Municipal flags of California (index page)
California
United States of America

Description of the flag

On his blog "O.C. History Roundup", Chris Jepsen presents the flag (contribution dated 7 October 2009) as follows:

"The Orange County flag was officially adopted by the Orange County Board of Supervisors on Dec. 11, 1968. The design was selected in a contest of high school students held earlier that year. There were 80 entries. The winning entry (shown above) was by Laura Shernaman, an 11th grader at Fountain Valley High School. The flag was first flown at the opening of the new Orange County Courthouse on Jan. 10, 1969, at 3:00 p.m. Note that the flag features a yellow sunburst surrounding the County emblem - an element that is often left out.

The circular emblem at the center of the flag (featuring three oranges, Old Saddleback, and rows of fields) has somewhat mysterious origins. The first usage I've heard of was in 1948, but there is no sign that it was ever officially adopted by the County. The official County seal remains a single orange with a stem and three leaves.

Below is another iteration of the County flag. It's interesting how many different shapes the yellow sunburst has taken over the years. Notice also that the text has changed from gold to white and that the mountains look less like Old Saddleback. It seems the flag's design drifts a bit over time."
ochistorical.blogspot.com/2009/07/orange-countys-flag.html
Ivan Sache, 17 December 2009

Slightly different design of the flag of the Orange county, California, and additional information. It seems that the image is the original artwork of the contest: www.flickr.com/photos/ocarchives/3708007352.
Valentin Poposki, 1 August 2009

An obviously handmade "prototype" flag is still in the courthouse lobby. It mostly resembles the image above, but the seal is larger and the proportions are something like 3:4. The "normal" flags, meanwhile, come in three versions: orange with seal in solar corona, orange with seal without corona, white with seal without corona - the last one I've only seen at the Santa Ana (county seat) train station.
Eugene Ipavec, 1 August 2009

Orange County Fire Authority

image by Randy Young, 28 July 2014

According to the entry on Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orange_County_Fire_Authority), "the Orange County Fire Authority (OCFA) is the agency that provides fire protection and emergency medical services for unincorporated areas of Orange County, California, and cities that contract OCFA's services. OCFA serves nearly 1.8 million residents in 23 cities and unincorporated areas from 71 fire stations. The OCFA Headquarters is in the city of Irvine."

I came across a photo of the OCFA flag at 1.bp.blogspot.com. Based on the photograph, the flag of the Orange County Fire Authority features the agency's seal displayed on a white field.
Randy Young, 28 July 2014

Seal

image located by Paul Bassinson, 27 December 2017

Image source: www.careambulance.net
Paul Bassinson, 27 December 2017