Investigators of Toxic Fire Face Wait of One Week

Arson investigators may have to wait up to a week before they can safely enter an Anaheim pesticide warehouse that erupted in flames late last Saturday, creating a toxic cloud over northern Orange County that forced the evacuation of 7,500 people.

Until the lengthy cleanup is completed, local and federal investigators say there is not much they can do to determine the cause of the blaze at the Larry Fricker Co. warehouse in an industrial area near the Riverside Freeway.

“We’re sort of at a standstill as far as the investigation is concerned,” John Kursteiner, arson supervisor for the U.S. Treasury Department’s bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, said Friday. “Until we get into the building there’s not much we can do.”

Anaheim Deputy Fire Marshal Gail McCloud said Friday that the cause of the blaze is being categorized as “suspicious” until the investigation is completed. Fire investigators had said earlier that the fire apparently started in an office Saturday night and spread to where chemicals, including 14 tons of potentially explosive ammonium nitrates, were being stored.

Some of those evacuated had to stay away from their homes for as much as four nights as the fire continued to smolder. Except for employees of two firms directly to the rear of the Fricker warehouse, the evacuees were allowed to return to their homes and offices late Wednesday.

‘Slow, Tedious Job’

The Coast Guard’s Pacific Strike Team and private contractors, wearing filtration masks and protective suits, will spend the week sorting, testing and preparing chemicals for disposal. “It’s a slow, tedious job,” McCloud said.

Investigators said arson for profit is being ruled out as a motive because the company was not insured. Fricker company attorney C. Peter Freeman said he does not believe any of his clients are considered suspects. Fricker company executives believe the fire was an arson, Freeman said, but he said they have no strong suspicions about who could have caused the fire or why.

“I’m sure they’re wondering, but I’m not aware of any person that they have in mind,” Freeman said.

One city fire inspector who asked that he remain anonymous said investigators have “a pretty darn good arson case going,” but declined to elaborate. The investigator said fire officials were suspicious because the fire started “in an area you wouldn’t expect a fire to be.”

Fricker co-owner Paul Etzold was in the warehouse office the night of the fire, Freeman said, but left around 9:30 p.m., about an hour and 15 minutes before the blaze was reported. Etzold had gone to the building to make sure it was locked, Freeman said.

‘Everything Normal’

“Everything was perfectly normal,” Freeman said. “The Xerox machine was off, the computer was off, the electric typewriter--there’s only one in the office --was turned off. He (Etzold) is not a big smoker. He’s careful. The telephone didn’t explode. At this point, we have to believe it was arson.”

In Placentia, meanwhile, where more than half of the evacuations occurred, a city official said the fire cost the city $17,879 in personnel overtime and supplies.

Assistant City Administrator John Slota said that figure does not include the loss to businesses that had to shut down or to residents who couldn’t get home and may have lost work time.

No comparable estimates were available from Anaheim or Fullerton, the other two cities in the evacuation area, or from the county.

Paul Hess, manager of the county’s Fire Department’s emergency management division, said he spoke Friday on behalf of the evacuated businesses to officials from the State Office of Emergency Services.

Unusual Situation

Because the evacuees did not suffer the kind of physical damage an earthquake or flood might cause, the door to disaster assistance “does not automatically open up,” Hess said.

The county, on behalf of the three cities, also will apply for assistance to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Hess said, once the cities tabulate their costs.

A toxic fire “is highly unusual and kind of new on the disaster scene,” Hess said. To calculate the losses, all businesses and residents evacuated will be receiving surveys in the next few weeks, he said.

Allan Hughes, executive director for the Anaheim Chamber of Commerce, said his group also plans to propose recommendations that would assist businesses in case of a similar incident. Hughes suggested a telephone service that would divert calls from the evacuated businesses to other businesses volunteering part of their office to the displaced ones.

“To be just cut off with no one answering your phone, the customer will pick up and call someone else,” Hughes said.