4-alarm blaze in Newport Beach Sunday morning injures 2 firefighters

A four-alarm fire that broke out Sunday morning in a Newport Beach apartment was controlled within two hours, but not before sending two firefighters to the hospital with injuries, according to a dispatcher.

Firefighters were dispatched to the Promontory Point apartment complex at 10:27 a.m. Sunday. On arrival they found a top floor apartment ablaze, said Newport Beach Fire Department dispatch spokesperson Julie Minerd.

A firefighter scales a ladder at Promontory Point apartments in Newport Beach Sunday morning.

(Susan Hoffman)

Information about the extent of the injuries to the two firefighters was not immediately available, nor was cause of the fire.

Black smoke could be seen billowing across Pacific Coast Highway toward Newport Dunes after the blaze erupted.

Firefighters and equipment on a driveway at the Promontory Point apartment complex Sunday after a fire broke out in a top floor apartment.

(Susan Hoffman)

Christine Fugate, who lives two doors from the apartment where the fire started, said she didn’t hear any fire alarms go off in her building. She said it was strangers passing by who saw smoke and called the fire department.

“A family driving by hit their horn and screamed, ‘Get out, get out,’” Fugate said. It was the noise they made that allowed her to escape to safety, she said. “I’m so upset, no fire alarms, I’m still shaking. People who don’t even live here called [911]. I’m really scared.”

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