Winery Fire Leaves Officials With a Suspicious Aftertaste
What filled the room at the San Antonio Winery offices in Costa Mesa on Saturday morning was bold, assertive, with a flaming yellow color, but it was not a new wine. It was a fire.
Investigators are investigating the cause of the 5:43 a.m. blaze at 1500 Newport Blvd. Although the fire has not been determined to be the work of an arsonist, “we’re suspicious as to what caused it,” Battalion Chief Gerald Poarch said. Still, he said, all the “natural causes” have not yet been ruled out.
The fire broke out on the first floor at a desk, burned the furniture and a typewriter and flared up through the ceiling into a storage area, Poarch said. The wine-tasting area apparently was not damaged, but some bottles were knocked over when a suspended advertising sign inside the building fell down, he said.
Damage was placed at $5,000 to the contents and $10,000 to the structure, Poarch said. The fire was brought under control at 6:31 a.m.
“It was not a very large fire, but it was very hot and fully charged with smoke,” Poarch said. The firefighters made a “super attack on it.”
The firefighters did not get to celebrate their accomplishment at the winery, he added.
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