4 Days After the Big Fire, They Return

More than 200 Newport Beach residents, forced from their homes Sunday morning when an industrial fire produced a potentially toxic cloud, finally were allowed to return Thursday.

The evacuation order was lifted about 6:30 a.m. after city and county officials said the area near the Hixson Metal Finishing Plating company posed no health danger, according to Battalion Chief Scott Allan of the Newport Beach Fire Department.

Although they were glad to be back home, many residents expressed anger at authorities for the long delay and the lack of information about the health threats from the fire and the resulting cleanup.

There was also great concern about who would foot the bill for the evacuation.

John A. Miller, 60, one of many people who had not been allowed back into an apartment complex near the fire scene, fished into his pocket and pulled out a fistful of receipts from restaurants and other expenses incurred during his five days away from home.

“What do I do with these?” Miller asked.

City officials said Thursday that they couldn’t help, and calls to Hixson weren’t returned.

“We’ve been swamped with questions,” said Newport Beach Fire Chief James Reed. “Our response is that we are not responsible for any loss or expense that might have occurred.”

One displaced resident, April Binfield, said she ran out of her asthma medication and had to break down in tears before a police officer would let her re-enter her apartment Tuesday.

“All the police would say is, ‘We can’t let you back in yet because they’re pumping cyanide,’ ” Binfield said Thursday.

The Red Cross set up an emergency shelter at Whittier School but closed it Tuesday after only two people had showed up. Red Cross volunteers did make arrangements for people who wanted to stay in motels.

Two private schools, Carden Hall and Newport Christian High School, reopened Thursday after being closed earlier in the week.

Authorities had said the cleanup of chemicals in the badly damaged plant was so delicate that it would be unsafe to allow people near the site until the job was done. The result was that the schools were closed and that Hixson’s commercial and residential neighbors were forced to stay out of the area in a corner of Newport Beach, west of Superior Avenue and just south of the boundary with Costa Mesa.

After cleanup crews worked through Wednesday night, the building where the fire occurred was declared “completely empty of all hazardous materials,” said Battalion Chief Allan.

Meanwhile, insurance and fire investigators have begun sifting through the rubble, hoping to find the cause of the fire, which remains under investigation.

No estimate of damage was available.

The Hixson plant has a separate office building and a warehouse which were not damaged by the fire.

Mounds of contaminated sand remained on sidewalks and in street gutters Thursday along the 800 block of Production Place. Huge tankers were still parked nearby, next to industrial compressors and pumps.

Cleanup operations in the building are expected to continue through the weekend.

Many of the evacuees described their forced departure as inconvenient and stressful.

Heard the Sirens

“I’m glad it’s over,” said apartment tenant Eduardo Poveda, 21. On Sunday, he said, he had been entertaining friends from Los Angeles. They were watching television; Poveda’s new red and white surfboard was the center of attention.

Then they heard the sirens.

“I didn’t react,” Poveda said. “Then a guy came screaming by yelling, ‘There’s a fire! Get out!’ We ran to get our car from the parking lot but firemen prevented us from getting close because of the heat from the flames”

By Wednesday night, homesick, anxious to try his new surfboard and in need of clothes, Poveda decided to break into his apartment but was caught by police.

“I kept telling them I just needed my clothes. They eventually let me go. But I was getting stressed out. I had no home. I wasn’t getting any sleep. My girlfriend and I were arguing.

“The first thing I did when I came back was grab my surfboard and go surfing.”

For April Binfield, the stressful part was the lack of information available to displaced residents.

“We never knew what was going on or when we could be allowed back into our apartments,” she said.

Other residents said an emergency hot line for evacuees was either always busy or the officials answering it didn’t know anything.

100 Hazardous Chemicals

Police first cordoned off the area Sunday morning after firemen realized there were more than 100 hazardous chemicals inside the plant.

More than 500 residents were evacuated to begin with. By Tuesday, fire officials had allowed some people back into the area, but residents of Newport Villas, a 55-unit apartment complex, and a nearby mobile home park were prevented from returning.

Between 2,000 and 4,000 gallons of spilled chemicals and runoff water were pumped into tankers for disposal by IT Corp., which had been contracted to remove chemicals from the plant.

Although cleanup crews were plagued Wednesday with equipment failures, by Thursday the “hot zone,” an area that can be potentially hazardous, had been reduced to the building’s perimeter, Allan said.

“No one will be allowed into that area without a self-contained breathing apparatus,” he said.

Allan said work crews have pumped in concrete to prevent the walls of the building from collapsing while cleanup continues.

Times staff writer Nancy Wride contributed to this story.