Canyons : When Firefighters Got There, Gym Was History

Orange County firefighters responding to a “fire out” call from the juvenile detention center at Los Pinos Forestry Camp were little prepared for what awaited them.

“Usually, a ‘fire out’ call is just a small item, like a grease fire or electrical fire in a wall socket that has already been extinguished,” Capt. Lou Furst said Tuesday. The fire was indeed out when the engine company arrived Monday morning at the camp located off the Ortega Highway, 22 miles east of San Juan Capistrano.

What had burned, however, was anything but small. The camp’s 22,000-square-foot wooden gymnasium was just a pile of ashes. And, added to that, no one at the camp had seen the fire, which caused about $400,000 in damage, according to fire officials.

There were about 85 juveniles, ages 16 to 18, plus Probation Department counselors at the camp when the blaze broke out sometime Sunday night or early Monday morning.

“It’s just our supposition right now, but the gym is located 300 yards from the nearest building, and that, coupled with the time of night the fire probably started and the fact it was very foggy, could explain how the fire went undetected,” Furst said.

If the fog contributed to the blaze going undetected, it also had a hand in preventing further destruction, according to Furst, because the camp is located deep within the Cleveland National Forest.

“Thank goodness it was so foggy and wet,” Furst said of the possibility that the flames could have spread to nearby heavy undergrowth. “If it hadn’t been, we’d still be out there fighting a fire.”