Santa Ana : $500,000 Restaurant Fire Classified as ‘Suspicious’
A fire that investigators said might have been started by an arsonist gutted the Canopy Family Restaurant Monday, causing an estimated $500,000 damage.
When firefighters arrived on the scene at 1241 W. 17th St. shortly after 2:30 a.m., flames and smoke were spewing so far out doors and windows that seemingly “there was fire in the street,” one firefighter said.
It took five engine companies and two truck companies an unusually long time, about 30 minutes, to control the two-alarm blaze. One firefighter suffered a back injury and was treated and released at a nearby hospital.
Deputy Fire Chief Bill Reedy said damage was so extensive that the restaurant’s exterior walls may not be saved.
Fire investigators worked in Monday’s rain, sifting the ashes for clues to the fire’s origin.
“We’re classifying it as suspicious,” Reedy said. “We can’t release anything more than that about the fire’s origin.”
Reedy said that a wall of a nearby commercial building suffered slight damage from heat radiated from the fire.
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