$350,000 Damage From Bank Blaze

The blaze that gutted an Anaheim bank office caused about $350,000 in damage and injured four firefighters, one of whom remained hospitalized in fair condition Tuesday night, officials said.

But fire officials, fearful that the roof of the Barclays Bank of California branch at 320 Katella Way might collapse, stayed out of the building Tuesday, leaving the cause of the blaze and the extent of the damage a mystery.

“We’re going to have to take the roof off the building--what’s left of it,” said Don Penfield, an Anaheim fire investigator.

Penfield said firefighters hoped to remove the roof today.

Bank officials, who likewise could not enter the damaged branch, said they believed the contents of the branch’s vaults and safe deposit boxes remained intact.

Pat Campbell, a Barclays vice president, said from her San Francisco office that the bank plans to move the safe deposit boxes to its downtown Anaheim office Thursday or Friday.

She said that the move would be made under armed guard and that customers should be able to gain access to their boxes Monday at the Barclays branch at 100 W. Lincoln Ave. in Anaheim.

“We don’t believe any damage was sustained to the safe deposit boxes,” Campbell said. “They are in an airtight vault, which means the water (used by firefighters to extinguish the blaze) should not have gotten in, and nothing inside would burn without air.”

The branch contained 3,500 accounts spread through about 1,500 households, Campbell said.

The vice president said Barclays customers could take their business to any of the bank’s branches, although at present, the staff of the Katella branch is working out of the office on West Lincoln Avenue.

The bank is a subsidiary of a British-based banking house that is among the world’s largest financial institutions.

Barclays Bank of California reported profits of $17 million in 1986 and had assets of $1.3 billion at year end. The bank’s ratio of capital to assets exceeded the minimum requirements of federal regulators.

While bank officials made plans to resume service, a firefighter who helped put out the blaze remained in fair condition at a Santa Ana hospital.

Capt. Ray Verbeck, who suffered a crushed left ankle and second- and third-degree burns in the blaze, was in intensive care at Western Medical Center, Anaheim Fire Department spokeswoman Mary Cords said.

Three other firefighters, Capt. Jim Cox, John Dale and Mike Feeney, were treated for minor injuries and released after the blaze.

The four firefighters were injured when the building’s main structural beam collapsed, pining them beneath it, officials said.