Fire Safety

The Newport Beach Fire Department will hold a Junior Firefighting Camp for children ages 9 to 13 this summer in Mariners Park. The camp, designed to introduce children to the firefighting profession, will be held in two sessions: from 8 a.m. to noon Tuesdays through Thursdays, from July 25 to July 27; and from 8 a.m. to noon, Monday through Wednesday, Aug. 21 to Aug. 23. Newport Beach Firefighters will teach children fire safety, basic first...

June Casagrande Fire Chief Tim Riley said he's proud of strides the city has made to prevent a Buck Gully fire from getting out of control. But now, he believes, it's time to take the next step. On Tuesday, Riley will give a presentation to the City Council on what he believes is the next generation of fire safety for Buck Gully -- a series of measures that would increase the distance between homes and the undeveloped gully area where plants growing wild can create the perfect fuel for a fire.

Through a strange convergence of circumstances, residents of the senior apartment complex Bethel Towers in Costa Mesa found themselves well prepared for a fire that broke out March 1 and sent two people to the hospital. They'd had fire safety classes in September, and half a dozen of the residents took more extensive emergency training. And before anyone knew there would be a fire, Costa Mesa officials were talking about how to make the aging towers safer by installing a sprinkler system and other fire prevention and warning systems.

Fire safety got a boost Wednesday at Costa Mesa's Bethel Towers, when city officials thanked Ace Hardware and the Costa Mesa Community Foundation for fire extinguishers that will go in residents' apartments. The high-rise senior apartment complex was built in 1966 before sprinklers were required, and it didn't have extinguishers for each of the building's 270 units until this week. The community foundation bought the extinguishers, and the city is training residents how to use them.

June Casagrande Torn between fire safety and protecting the economy of the harbor, City Council members on Tuesday took their first small step toward eradicating a dangerous and widespread practice of illegally berthing boats in the harbor. Council members voted 4-0, with Tod Ridgeway abstaining and Gary Adams absent, to begin a gradual implementation of county fire codes, despite pleas from marine business owners sure to suffer. "It's going to be a burden to a company like ours," said Gary Crane, one of the owners of Duffy Boat Rentals.

Deepa Bharath It's more than a friendly visit to the neighborhood fire station. It's more than a big, burly firefighter wagging his finger at you and telling you never to play with matches again. Orange County Fire F.R.I.E.N.D.S, which stands for Firesetter Regional Intervention Education Network and Delivery System, is a program that goes several steps further with children for whom playing with fire becomes a dangerous habit and an addiction. Costa Mesa is now part of the program, which was started by the Orange County Fire Authority.

June Casagrande If fire codes were enforced tomorrow, 150 boats in the harbor would have to disappear overnight. As council members heard in disturbing detail at their study session Tuesday, the status quo of fire safety is not OK, especially at marinas, yacht brokerages and other on-water businesses. Harbor Resources Manager Tom Rossmiller gave the council a presentation on the state of things in the harbor and on a proposal by the city's Harbor Commission to kindly and gently crack down.

What kid hasn't dreamed of becoming a firefighter? The heroism, the shiny red truck and the cool yellow turnouts ? for many kids firefighting is the ultimate career. Youngsters will get their chance to experience what the fire service is really like in the Newport Beach Fire Department's first-ever Junior Firefighter camp that begins Tuesday. The first session will be held from 8 a.m. to noon Tuesday through Thursday at Mariners Park in Newport Beach. A second will be held at the same time, from Aug. 21 to Aug. 23. The cost for registration is $90 per child; there are still spots available in each session.

June Casagrande Just as some had feared, residents haven't been as safe from fires as they thought. A survey of landscaping work done on fire buffer zones shows that some of these areas have not been maintained according to fire safety standards. "These 'fuel modification zones' are important to the residents because they're designed as a barrier against wild fires such as the ones that were in Laguna Beach several years ago," said Jim McGee, a Newport Coast resident and member of the city's Newport Coast Advisory committee.

It was almost as if there were nowhere they could go — they ran left, the water followed. They broke right, scampered back and even tried sprinting forward to get in front of the torrential downpour, but it was useless. Newport Beach Fire Department medic Bryan Carter is good with the hose. “There’s one that’s dry still,” Carter said with a competitive glee, pulling the 100-foot fire hose left at a higher angle as a never-ending downpour of water chased down the lone junior firefighter hesitant to get wet under the summer sun 100 feet away.

With the Department of Homeland Security’s Federal Emergency Management Agency’s help, UCI is working to increase safety measures for firefighters and those they protect. FEMA gave university researchers a $1 million Fire Prevention and Safety grant Tuesday to work toward the goal of bettering firefighter awareness. Sharad Mehrotra, professor of computer sciences, and Nalini Venkatasubramanian, associate professor of computer sciences, will team up with Long Beach disaster response technology company ImageCat to develop tools for firefighters that relay information to them faster to improve decision-making and reaction time.

In 1967, Newport Beach firefighters and Engine 6 went to the aid of fellow firefighters battling the Paseo Grande Fire in Corona. Unlike the organization and teamwork evident throughout the Southern California wildfires this past week, Jerry Strom said the only thing organized that day was the food. Milton Meehan was the Battalion Chief and he said when the team arrived, nobody seemed to be in charge. No headquarters or command center had been set up. Meehan sad the firefighters knew how to combat local fires, but lacked experience with widespread blazes.

A near-tragedy occurred in Costa Mesa recently. And it could, in all likelihood, have been avoided. Let’s start with the facts: A two bedroom apartment, in which nine people were living, caught fire. An 11-year-old boy was taken to Hoag Memorial Hospital Presbyterian in Newport Beach. There were no other injuries, but six families were displaced, according to Red Cross officials. One unit of the apartment complex was destroyed. Another suffered water damage.

Chiropractor Babak Shahrestani will sponsor Costa Mesa’s celebration of the 13th annual Kids Day America/International, a health, safety and environmental awareness day. From noon to 3 p.m. Sept. 22 at Shahrestani’s office, 2328 Newport Blvd., Costa Mesa, the chiropractor’s staff will issue special ID cards for every child, as Costa Mesa police and fire officials provide free fingerprinting and fire safety tips for the kids. Shahrestani will also offer free health screenings.

The Newport Beach Fire Department is looking for youth interested in signing up for the next Junior Firefighter Camp scheduled to run next week. Geared toward children ages 9 to 13, the camp runs from 8 a.m. to noon, Aug. 15 to 17 at Mariners Park in Newport Beach. Over those three days, participants will learn about fire fighting, safety and first aid techniques from a group of Newport Beach's own professional firefighters, said department spokeswoman Jennifer Schulz. The program costs $90. Those interested in enrolling can visit www.city.

Be sure to check out the "Exit Drills In The Home" display at the Orange County Fair, presented by the Orange County Fire Chiefs Assn. and the Orange Country Fire Prevention Officers. The interactive prop is designed to teach families how to create an escape plan in case of a fire in the home. It will be at the Orange County Fire Chiefs Assn.'s booth in the Orange County exhibit building. Firefighters will be at the booth to answer questions about the prop. Costa Mesa Fire Department officials will be at the booth on July 18 and July 24, and members of the Newport Beach Fire Department will attend on July 15, Aug. 4 and Aug. 5. — Heidi Schultheis

Fire safety got a boost Wednesday at Costa Mesa's Bethel Towers, when city officials thanked Ace Hardware and the Costa Mesa Community Foundation for fire extinguishers that will go in residents' apartments. The high-rise senior apartment complex was built in 1966 before sprinklers were required, and it didn't have extinguishers for each of the building's 270 units until this week. The community foundation bought the extinguishers, and the city is training residents how to use them.

Through a strange convergence of circumstances, residents of the senior apartment complex Bethel Towers in Costa Mesa found themselves well prepared for a fire that broke out March 1 and sent two people to the hospital. They'd had fire safety classes in September, and half a dozen of the residents took more extensive emergency training. And before anyone knew there would be a fire, Costa Mesa officials were talking about how to make the aging towers safer by installing a sprinkler system and other fire prevention and warning systems.