Signs of forced entry found after fire damages Newport’s Ensign Intermediate School
A fire badly damaged a girls’ locker room and an attic early Friday at Ensign Intermediate School in Newport Beach, authorities said.
The cause of the blaze is under investigation, but there were signs of forced entry and suspicious electrical damage, Newport Beach fire Battalion Chief Jeff Boyles told the Los Angeles Times.
“A girls’ locker room doesn’t just burn down for any reason,” Boyles said.
Firefighters responded to an alarm at the school at 2000 Cliff Drive at about 4:45 a.m., fire Capt. Ty Lunde said. They had to break into the unoccupied building, he said.
The fire started in an office of the locker room and spread to the attic, Lunde said. It took about an hour to extinguish the attic fire, he said.
No firefighters were injured, Lunde said, and students were not immediately affected because they had Friday off for Veterans Day.
Firefighters from Orange, Garden Grove and the Orange County Fire Authority assisted in battling the blaze. Newport Beach firefighters were simultaneously fighting a massive fire at a storage area on Production Place off Placentia Avenue, about two miles from the school.
Boyles said that fire also was suspicious.
Joseph Serna of the Los Angeles Times contributed to this report.
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