Orange : Lumberyard Fire Loss Placed at $1.5 Million

Fire investigators Monday were investigating the cause of a fire in an Orange lumberyard that burned for six hours and caused about $1.5-million damage.

The fire broke out shortly before 9:30 p.m. Sunday in a wood-curing building at the South Bay Redwood Co., 2200 N. Glassell St., said Battalion Chief Pete Pedersen. The two-story building houses kilns, which heat and dry the lumber, Pedersen said.

Firefighters had a tough job because the wood was stacked with spaces between the planks to allow air to circulate, he said. However, the spaces allowed the fire to burn through the center of the stacks, where the firefighters could not get at it, Pedersen said.

The lumber-curing building is divided into three rooms, and the fire consumed the center section. Most of the wood from the east and west sides were removed, although some wood on the east side was burned, he said.

Asked how much lumber burned, Pedersen could only describe it as “one big cube of wood.” The center room’s dimensions were roughly 30 by 30 by 30 feet, and it was filled with lumber, he said.

Investigators are investigating to see if there was a problem with the kiln’s heating unit, which normally keeps the temperature at about 105 degrees, he said.

Incident Commander Darell Verburg led about 35 firefighters from Orange and Anaheim fire departments, Pedersen said.