Newspaper Delivery Agent Helps Save Burning Seal Beach House

A Los Angeles Times delivery distribution agent who noticed a fire at an unoccupied Seal Beach house Friday, alerted fire officials and then helped control the blaze until they arrived was credited with helping to save the dwelling, officials said.

Joseph Townsend, 21, of Huntington Beach, an assistant distribution agent, said he noticed a fire at 416 Crystal Place at about 4:30 a.m. while filling in for the regular delivery person.

“I saw some smoke coming from the back of the house,” Townsend said in an interview. “I got out of the car and hopped the fence. I saw that the house was on fire.”

Townsend, a second-generation Times employee who has worked for the company since starting out as a newspaper carrier 10 years ago, said he tried but failed to kick in the front door of the house. He then banged on the door of a neighbor’s house, also without response.

At a third home, he convinced the occupant to call the Fire Department. Townsend returned to the burning house, climbed in a window to warn anyone inside and, finding the house empty, grabbed a garden hose and turned it on the smoking roof.

According to Craig Kinoshita, a spokesman for the Orange County Fire Department, Townsend’s action helped control the blaze until firefighters arrived. It took 20 firefighters 15 minutes to bring the fire under control.

Damage was estimated at $20,000 to the house’s contents and $5,000 to the structure. The cause of the fire, which was confined to an enclosed patio area, attic and roof area, was a malfunctioning electrical vibrating chair, Kinoshita said.