$100,000 Fire Forces Register to Print an Edition in Anaheim

A three-alarm fire at the Orange County Register in Santa Ana on Tuesday morning caused more than $100,000 in damage, shutting down phone lines and newsroom computers for several hours, fire officials said.

Reporters and editors produced the afternoon edition at the Anaheim Bulletin, a sister newspaper, but were able to return to work by mid-afternoon, a spokeswoman for the newspaper said.

Editor N. Christian Anderson said this morning’s editions were to be produced at the paper’s main facility, at 625 N. Grand Ave.

The fire was more inconvenient than it was costly, Anderson said.

It was “a helluva lot more disruptive than probably the actual dollar damage,” Anderson said.

The cause of the fire, the paper’s second in less than three years, was still under investigation late Tuesday, said Santa Ana Fire Department spokeswoman Sharon Frank.

About 110 workers were evacuated from the Register’s production facility about 4:20 a.m., after security guard Larry Kennedy, on routine patrol of the grounds, said he discovered 10-foot flames in a basement storage area where hundreds of 2,000-pound newsprint rolls are kept.

Thick smoke and heat had already damaged phone lines, Kennedy said, so a supervisor left the plant and phoned the 911 emergency number from a nearby store while he began the evacuation.

“My main concern was getting those people out,” Kennedy said. “I didn’t see much else. Nobody running away or anything.”

Three pressmen, who remained in the building to help firefighters, suffered smoke inhalation, said Jody Taylor, the paper’s promotions and communications manager.

Dale Jorgensen and Roy Duran, both 21, were admitted to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana, where officials there reported them in stable condition. Rick Lockridge, 22, was treated and released.

At least 175 newsprint rolls--worth $500 each--were burned or water-damaged; Anderson said the full extent of the paper destruction had not yet been determined.

While the fire was contained to the area where paper rolls are delivered to the newspaper, heat and smoke damaged cables leading from the computer room directly above the blaze. Some phone lines that were housed next to the newsprint loading dock also were destroyed, Frank said.

But Anderson said newsroom phones experienced only “hiccups” of disruption throughout the morning.

The previous fire, believed started by a smoker, occurred in the same spot and burned July 31 and into Aug. 1, 1984, during the Summer Olympics. That blaze, the damage of which was estimated at $750,000, was considered more damaging.