Fire Began in Shed Behind Building : Transients Accidentally Started Blaze in Huntington Beach

A blaze that gutted one of downtown Huntington Beach’s oldest buildings was started accidentally by transients living in a shed behind the building, authorities said Friday.

“The source of the ignition was a candle or some kind of smoking material which caught two mattresses on fire in the shed,” Birgit Davis, a Huntington Beach Fire Department spokeswoman, said.

Davis said transients lived behind the two-story building on Main Street east of Pacific Coast Highway in a corrugated steel shed stuffed with mattresses. Once the mattresses caught fire, flames spread to the building itself. Wood stacked behind the building also helped to fuel the blaze that broke out shortly before 5:45 a.m. Thursday.

Firefighter Thomas Townsend, 46, injured in the fire, remained in critical but stable condition at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital. He suffered head and spinal injuries, Davis said.

The San Clemente resident was walking by the building to turn off utility hookups when a section of brick wall collapsed on him. A 16-year-old Huntington Beach youth also suffered a sprained ankle while trying to get out of the way of firefighters.

Davis said the unreinforced masonry structure, already considered seismically unsafe, will not be reoccupied and probably will be torn down. The building housed a surfboard shop, a beach wear store and five apartments. Damage was estimated at $500,000 to the structure and at least $125,000 to contents, she said.

At least five of the seven displaced apartment tenants were given temporary lodging, food and clothing by the American Red Cross.