Fire Destroys Building for Retarded in Camarillo

A man smoking in bed early Friday accidentally started a fire that destroyed a building at a Camarillo facility for mentally retarded adults, but the 16 residents escaped serious injury, Ventura County fire officials said.

The 2 a.m. fire, in which two people sustained minor burns, began when a resident tried to sneak a cigarette as he lay in bed in one of three buildings of a complex operated by Total Living Continuum Inc., a fire official said.

The one building was gutted, said Alison Schember, a county fire dispatcher. Damage was estimated at more than $50,000.

When his bedcovers caught fire, the man, whose name was not disclosed, panicked and did not immediately notify a staff member in the building, according to Kerry Ellison, a county fire engineer.

The resident finally called for the staff member, and she awoke and saw the bedcovers flaming with the man still in bed, said Lesi Crowell, the facility’s supervisor. The staff member tried to extinguish the fire with her hands, Crowell said, then evacuated the man and three other residents.

Other staff members then evacuated residents of the other buildings, which were not damaged, fire officials said.

When firefighters arrived at the home on Catalina Drive, the building was in flames, Ellison said.

Firefighting efforts were hampered slightly by a malfunctioning fire hydrant, Schember said. But it took firefighters only 16 minutes to extinguish the fire, she said.

The staff member and the resident who started the fire were treated for burns at Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo and released, a hospital spokeswoman said.

The belongings of the building’s residents were lost in the fire, Crowell said. “They have absolutely nothing,” she said.

Total Living Continuum operates 13 or 14 similar residential facilities in California, Crowell said.

She said the company found temporary shelter for the Camarillo residents at a home in Somis run by another company.