Yes, kids from Turtle Rock go to University High, and it is still the "best" high school in Irvine in terms of the metrics GrewUpInIrvine described. However, Northwood High is starting to catch up.
Turtle Rock is a nice, quiet area, I had plenty of friends lived in the area and went to Uni during the 90s. A lot of them went to Stanford and the Ivies afterwards. I would say there is a sizeable Asian population in and around Turtle Rock, due to all the families that wanted their kids going to Uni High. So, while Uni is a good school with good teachers, I would say Uni's stellar academic reputation is largely built upon the large numbers of overachieving minorities in the 80s and 90s who upped the academic ante. The competition at Uni is a good or bad thing ... it depends on how well your kids thrive on academic pressure. In some cases it might be better for your kids to go to a "lesser" school and be the top of the class there, instead of being in the middle of pack at Uni.
I don't think fire is a big issue in the area, unlike Anaheim Hills. I've lived in Irvine for the past 23 years and I can't recall fires that directly threatened homes there - besides that 93-94 incident, but all of Irvine was on alert because of the wildfires from (I think) Laguna.
In general, a lot of the houses in Irvine that were built in the 80s and early to mid 90s are more spaced out than the newer houses. The neighborhood streets are more wider and bigger houses from that era have true 3-car side-by-side garages; not these tandem things we see now. All the new developments try to squeeze the most bang out of the buck in terms of housing density - we end up with McMansions that are 10 ft away from each other, not to mention the houses taking up more than 60-70% of the lot size.
