Fire Damage

NEWPORT BEACH — Dozens of firefighters from Newport Beach and Costa Mesa responded to an apartment fire here Tuesday morning that blew out windows and caused a quarter-million dollars in damage to the unit and surrounding area. About 4:21 a.m., a passerby on the way to work heard crackling coming from the Coronado Apartments, 1605 Sherington Place. Firefighters rushed to the scene and found smoke billowing from the second floor and flames lapping up to the apartment above.

Costa Mesa arson investigators are still trying to determine the cause of a fire that raged through a single-family home Saturday. The firefighters arrived at the home on Colgate Street about 6:40 p.m. Intense smoke and heat, and the detonation of small rounds of ammunition in the garage frustrated their efforts. Firefighters extinguished the blaze when they cut into the roof to ventilate the house. Twenty-one firefighters put down the blaze in about 15 minutes. Authorities from the Costa Mesa Fire Department say the severity of the fire damage in the garage has impeded the pace of the investigation.

A Costa Mesa family has been relocated for the holidays after a small chimney fire forced more than 20 firefighters to tear a hole in their roof Monday. Officials received the report of a fire in the 1500 block of Mesa Verde Drive East at about 12:20 p.m. No injuries were reported as firefighters extinguished the flames on the roof of the two-story Pine Brook Village Apartments almost immediately. "There was interior smoke damage but the majority of the fire damage was on the chimney, on the roof," said Battalion Chief Chris Riley of the Costa Mesa Fire Department.

Danette Goulet CORONA DEL MAR -- Police are searching for the person responsible for starting a fire Tuesday morning in a boys' restroom at Corona del Mar High School. It is the second fire in as many weeks at the school. Each fire was set by igniting a roll of toilet paper in a boys' restroom. "Some kid decided after doing it one time that it was fun and he'd do it again," said Don Martin, principal at Corona del Mar. "We haven't caught him yet."

A quick-thinking neighbor extinguished a fire in a Balboa Peninsula apartment Friday afternoon. Joe Bardes was getting ready to take a boat ride about 1:30 p.m. when he smelled something burning. He ran to the apartment building next door in the 2100 block of East Balboa Boulevard. With a cell phone in one hand, he grabbed a garden hose with the other and popped open the door as he was calling 911. Bardes, who drew on his experience as a firefighter in New Jersey, was able to put out the fire before it caused to the first-floor, one-bedroom apartment and before fire crews arrived at the scene, about three minutes later.

Fire causes about $850,000 in damage No one was hurt in a Sunday evening fire which caused about $850,000 in damage to a three-story Newport Coast home, Newport Beach fire officials said. The call came in at about 6:15 p.m. Sunday when the resident in the 80 block of Anjou reported that he smelled smoke minutes after he tried to turn on his fireplace, officials said. The smoke detector went off, and the resident saw smoke in the attic and called 911, said Jennifer Schulz, spokeswoman for the Fire Department.

BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS Business suffers $40,000 fire damage A two-alarm fire gutted a Costa Mesa business early Thursday morning, causing about $40,000 in damages, fire officials said. No one was injured in the 1:07 a.m. fire at a single-story strip mall in the 800 block of West 19th St., Battalion Chief Gregg Steward said. A second alarm was called because of the fire's potential to spread to other units in the strip mall, he said. The fire was put out in minutes, but it caused extensive fire and smoke damage to the one unit, Steward said.

Danette Goulet HE IS Coming to the rescue. SAVING LIVES One year ago, Capt. Ron Gamble answered the call of his lifetime -- of any firefighter's lifetime, he'd say. He and his crew responded to a call in which they were told a fire had trapped two girls in their home. The second engine to arrive at the scene, Gamble and his partner immediately protected the stairwell while another duo looked for the girl, with whom they had lost contact.

BRIEFLY IN THE NEWS Home suffers major fire damage A two-alarm fire early Tuesday morning charred the upper floor of a two-story Newport Shores home causing about $130,000 in damages, officials said. No one was hurt in the incident. Firefighters responded to the call in the 200 block of Walnut Street after a neighbor, an off-duty U.S. Forest Service firefighter, called 911, said Donna Boston, spokeswoman for the Newport Beach Fire Department.

A fire caused about $50,000 in structural damage to three single-car garages in Costa Mesa, authorities said Friday. An additional $10,000 in content damage was also reported. The Costa Mesa Fire Department responded to the fire in the garages, which are attached to a two-story apartment at 3020 Fillmore Way, at 4:18 p.m. Thursday. About 21 firefighters put out the fire in about 10 minutes, according to a news release. The fire was contained to the garages. The fire was said to have been started accidentally.

An industrial fire in Irvine caused an estimated $7 million in damage, fire officials said Tuesday. The four-alarm fire took place at Trantronics Inc., near Red Hill Avenue and MacArthur Boulevard on Saturday. The cause is still under investigation, Orange County Fire Authority Battalion Chief Kris Concepcion said. Concepcion said the damage was estimated at $2 million for the structure and $5 million for the building's contents. Trantronics manufactures electronic hardware, like X-ray machines and computer equipment.

Two fires broke out Saturday morning in Newport Beach inside homes that were under construction, but no injuries were reported. Combined, the homes incurred more than $300,000 worth of damage, according to a news release issued by the Newport Beach Fire Department on Saturday. Jennifer Schulz, a public information officer with the department, said one of the fires broke out on Grand Canal on Balboa Island. The second fire was reported on Kings Road, about a block north of Pacific Coast Highway.

NEWPORT BEACH — Dozens of firefighters from Newport Beach and Costa Mesa responded to an apartment fire here Tuesday morning that blew out windows and caused a quarter-million dollars in damage to the unit and surrounding area. About 4:21 a.m., a passerby on the way to work heard crackling coming from the Coronado Apartments, 1605 Sherington Place. Firefighters rushed to the scene and found smoke billowing from the second floor and flames lapping up to the apartment above.

Costa Mesa arson investigators are still trying to determine the cause of a fire that raged through a single-family home Saturday. The firefighters arrived at the home on Colgate Street about 6:40 p.m. Intense smoke and heat, and the detonation of small rounds of ammunition in the garage frustrated their efforts. Firefighters extinguished the blaze when they cut into the roof to ventilate the house. Twenty-one firefighters put down the blaze in about 15 minutes. Authorities from the Costa Mesa Fire Department say the severity of the fire damage in the garage has impeded the pace of the investigation.

Ten days ago today a large portion of one of California’s great public gardens was destroyed. It was a tragic event and a loss to the gardening community. For several days in early May fire raged in the hills and canyons east of Santa Barbara, spurred by wind gusts as high as 65 mph.   Five thousand homes were evacuated, 8,700 acres were burned and 30,000 people were affected. The fire was front-page news. Ninety-five homes were burned, 80 were destroyed. But for the gardeners of Southern California there was more bad news from Santa Barbara — news that didn’t make the headlines.

Firefighters continue to investigate the cause of a blaze that damaged three detached garages on Hamilton Street on Monday morning, officials said. About 2:18 a.m., firefighters were called to 393 Hamilton St. where flames had already caused significant damage. Crews responded within five minutes and after creating ventilation points in the roof extinguished the blaze without it spreading to nearby units, said Battalion Chief Bill Kershaw. Twenty-one firefighters responded to the incident, and no one was injured, officials said.

Examining the charred landscape around Bonita Canyon after Monday’s brush fires, John Fransen and his daughter Leigh realized that firefighters had arrived at the blaze not a minute too soon to save their Newport Beach home. Aside from some singed wood shingles and a flame-broiled top of a palm tree in their back yard, the family did not find any serious damage to their wood house, and they give a lot of credit for that to an alert neighbor, Chuck Reilly. Reilly saw smoke billowing toward the house in the canyon as he was driving back from getting a burger and called the fire department.

A smoke alarm alerted Newport Beach firefighters to a small bedroom fire at 8:29 p.m. Tuesday night at a home on Amethyst in Balboa Island. Upon arrival, firefighters promptly doused the fire in the back bedroom of the home. Nobody was at the residence when the fire began, and no injuries were reported, according to the Newport Beach Fire Department. Twenty Newport Beach firefighters responded to the fire, which firefighters speculate was started by an electrical device, but the cause is still under investigation, according to Fire Department officials.