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1st Rain of Season Results in Fatal Crash

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Times Staff Writers

The first measurable rain in more than four months fell on Orange County Wednesday, contributing to a fatal freeway accident and joining with lower temperatures from a cold front to keep people off the beaches by the tens of thousands.

The National Weather Service reported .26 of an inch of rainfall in Santa Ana and .20 of an inch in Newport Beach. A trace hit San Juan Capistrano. Orange County firefighters in Santa Ana said it was the first measurable rain since April 22.

Fatal Freeway Crash

The California Highway Patrol blamed the rain for an accident on the Riverside Freeway in Anaheim in which Joe Fierro, 61, of Fullerton was killed.

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A CHP spokesman said an eastbound tractor-trailer apparently skidded on the rain-slick road, veered through the median and plowed into Fierro’s westbound car. A second tractor-trailer and three other cars were involved in the crash, but no one else was reported injured.

The accident blocked all four lanes of the westbound freeway from 7:10 a.m. to about 10:45 a.m.

Traffic investigators said the accident chain started when a tractor pulling two trailers partially loaded with cement blocks began to hydroplane and sideswiped another tractor-trailer, which hit a compact car. The first rig continued into the westbound lanes and collided with Fierro’s station wagon, police said. No citations were issued in the accident.

At Orange County beaches, the mere threat of rain was sufficient to keep people home, lifeguards said.

“On a day like today during the middle of the summer, we’d probably get a crowd of 25,000 or 30,000 on our one mile of beach,” Andy Weissenberger, the senior lifeguard at Huntington City Beach, said.

But on Wednesday there were “maybe about 5,000 attending, total,” Weissenberger said, and “that’s probably a high guess.”

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‘About Zero’ Attendance

At Laguna Beach, lifeguard Leslie Drucker reported “just about zero” attendance, “maybe around 20 for the whole stretch” of a beach that is thronged with sun worshipers on a fine summer’s day. Surf was running two to four feet, with the 72-degree water warmer than the air, which registered 70 degrees.

The Weather Service said clouds are likely again this morning, with temperatures in the upper 60s to low 70s but with sunshine likely in the afternoon as a low-pressure system at upper levels weakens and moves to the northeast.

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