Riverside County Fire Destroys Tire Store, Restaurant

A three-alarm fire spewed toxic smoke high into the sky Thursday as it destroyed a tire store and an adjoining restaurant. Officials estimated damage from the blaze at $1 million.

The black smoke--visible 10 miles away through the morning haze--billowed above Home Gardens, a small unincorporated community east of Corona alongside the Riverside Freeway.

Nine people inside the building escaped without injury, but the single-story Magnolia Avenue structure shared by K & M Tires Inc. and the Mex Restaurant and Bakery was a near total loss.

“All that smoke was real toxic,” said Capt. George Tatum of the California Department of Forestry, which provides fire protection to unincorporated areas of Riverside County. “The people who were inside that building were lucky they got out without any trouble, without any damage to their lungs.”

No evacuations were ordered, but students at Home Gardens Elementary School, across the street from the fire, were kept indoors for recess. Some complained of minor headaches from the heavy, oily stench of burning rubber, a school employee said.

The fire began with a short circuit in an electrical conduit that set paper boxes and rubber inner tubes aflame, Tatum said after surveying the rubble Thursday afternoon.

Workers at the tire store discovered the fire when they arrived to open the shop about 8:30 a.m. “We just walked in the front door this morning . . . and saw a lot of smoke,” said Richard Figgins, a mechanic at the tire shop.

Figgins and owner Jim King of Norco tried to fight the flames with fire extinguishers, but by the time firefighters arrived they had been forced out of the building by flames, heat and noxious smoke.

“Before the Fire Department got here”--from a station about a mile away--”there were flames coming through the roof,” said Sheriff’s Deputy Bruce Meeks, the first officer on the scene.

The building was quickly engulfed in flames, said Engineer Mike Mendez of the county Fire Department. “It was roaring like a lion at us.”

The fire took about an hour and a half to control, and it left standing only a few internal fixtures and the building’s external cinder-block walls. A pickup truck, with one wheel removed, remained elevated and undamaged on a hydraulic lift behind the burning tire shop.

Although his insurance probably is insufficient to cover the losses, King said he plans to reopen the tire store. “We’re going to try to continue if we can,” he said.

Thursday’s blaze also spread to a wooden utility pole behind the bakery, causing several lines to catch fire. That left about 75 telephone customers--including Home Gardens Elementary School--without service.

Fire officials were still mopping up late Thursday, so telephone repair crews probably will be unable to get into the area until sometime today, said Michael Runzler, a spokesman for Pacific Bell.