Broken Hydrant Delayed Firefighters, Report Says

A broken fire hydrant delayed Anaheim firefighters’ efforts to halt a major apartment house fire last week, according to a report issued Wednesday by city officials.

“Approximately seven to 10 minutes after (fire crews’) arrival,” the report states, “water was delivered effectively to the west end of the building and interior attic spaces.”

Normally, the city’s fire chief said in an interview, “that would take about three minutes from the time they arrived.”

The carefully worded report’s release came after the first legal action stemming from the July 3 blaze that destroyed 40 apartments and damaged 30 others in an East La Palma Avenue complex.

A lawsuit was filed Wednesday afternoon in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of Archie Holton, a displaced tenant who allegedly lost all his belongings in the fire. His suit names the City of Anaheim and the Casa de Valencia Apartments as defendants.

The threat of such lawsuits stemming from the early-morning fire has had city officials walking on eggshells because Anaheim just last week began to “go bare,” without costly liability insurance.

Instead, the city is “self-insured,” meaning that it must pay the costs of court judgments against it from its own resources.

“We are expecting litigation on this thing,” said Fire Chief Darrell Hartshorn. “ . . . Cities are a major target, and we’ve just been very, very careful.”

The three-page report was carefully scrutinized by city attorneys before it was released, said Sheri Erlewine, Anaheim’s public information officer. City officials declined to release other documents--such as maintenance reports on the faulty hydrant.

Fire investigators said illegal fireworks were responsible for the blaze, which took firefighters an hour and 32 minutes to contain, according to Wednesday’s report.

The first firefighters to arrive at the burning apartment building worked to evacuate residents immediately and called in a second alarm, the report states. About 250 people were evacuated from the complex’s 156 apartment units.

Another engine company was assigned to attack the fire from the La Palma Avenue side, but the broken fire hydrant prevented that unit from obtaining water until other lines could be laid from incoming units, the report says.

The building’s “unprotected wood shake shingle roof with long runs of unprotected common attics . . . coupled with an extremely adverse climatic condition of high heat, contributed to the rapid spread of fire.”

Tape Preservation Sought

Now, a week after the fire, residents have begun lining up to sue Anaheim and the apartments’ owners.

A Santa Ana attorney filed papers in Orange County Superior Court on Wednesday seeking a court order preventing the city from destroying any evidence that may be relevant to the residents’ cases.

“We are requesting that the Fire Department, the city and any other agencies that have tapes of what went on that evening, preserve those tapes instead of inadvertently erasing them,” said attorney Jeffrey A. Milman.

A hearing on Milman’s request is set for this afternoon, but the city is not likely to challenge the proposed order “unless there’s some procedural defect,” said Robert Franks, Anaheim’s assistant city attorney.

Milman filed the lawsuit on behalf of Holton, he said. The suit claims Holton suffered damage to his property and lost the use of his apartment.

Milman said that he has been retained to represent several tenants and that he will put together a more comprehensive suit later on behalf of more residents. The attorney expects to retain additional clients tonight at a tenants’ meeting, he said.

Times staff writer Gary Jarlson contributed to this story.