Fire Destroys Avocado Packing Plant : Arson Blaze 2nd in Days; Damage Put at $3 Million

An arson fire raced through an avocado packing plant in La Habra early Wednesday, threatening to spread to nearby homes and shooting flames as high as 150 feet.

More than 80 firefighters from Orange and Los Angeles counties fought for more than two hours to contain the spectacular blaze, which fire officials said was deliberately set about 2:30 a.m. at the plant owned by Index Mutual Assn. in the 400 block of South Beach Boulevard.

It was the second arson fire at the plant this week, and a truck in the neighborhood was set ablaze under suspicious circumstances the same night as the first fire, authorities said.

Neighboring Homes Saved

Flames destroyed the 73-year-old clapboard building, with the loss estimated at $3 million. Fire officials said there were no injuries.

The first firefighters arriving at the scene found the plant engulfed in flames, La Habra Fire Department Battalion Chief Mike McGroarty said. Unable to save the building, firefighters used high-pressure hoses to prevent flames from spreading to homes in the 2100 block of Story Avenue, next to the packing plant.

Some residents, awakened by the fire, immediately started calling neighbors to warn them.

“I don’t know why I woke up,” Diane Case said. “I was laying in bed, and I rolled over and I saw orange. . . . When I looked out, (the building) was engulfed in flames.”

Case, 45, said she immediately started calling neighbors and ran across the street to wake up one elderly man. “He’s not well, and he doesn’t hear good,” Case said. The fire “seemed so close at that time. . . . The flames were so high. . . . I could imagine all the houses going up.”

Another resident, Vivian Whitaker, said a neighbor had called to alert her to the fire.

“It was orange all around my house,” said Whitaker, 56. “I looked out . . . and saw the flames were really high. I just started gathering up my family pictures.”

Firefighters from La Habra, Fullerton, Buena Park, Brea and Los Angeles County put out the blaze by 4:30 a.m. But firefighters continued to pour water for several more hours on tons of charred rubble that had fallen into the building’s basement.

Because the packing plant was so old, it was listed among a group of buildings considered a high fire risk and was inspected by the Fire Department once a year, McGroarty said. Plant officials confirmed that the building was last inspected about six months ago.

Mike Winfrey, general manager of the plant, said he did not know who would want to burn the building, which is insured.

He said the packing plant, a co-op owned by more than 300 avocado growers, had hired a private security company to patrol the area after two pallets on the loading dock were set on fire early Monday. Fire officials said Monday’s fire was also deliberately set.

Winfrey said about $350,000 worth of avocados had been in the Index plant and were being packed for shipment all over the United States and Europe.

Index employed between 35 and 40 workers, Winfrey said. He said some of the employees will be retained and others will be asked to file for unemployment compensation.

‘Definite Evidence’ of Arson

La Habra Fire Chief Ben Wilkins said arson investigators had found “definite evidence” that the fire was deliberately set.

In an earlier incident, McGroarty said a truck belonging to a resident of Story Avenue was set on fire about an hour before Monday’s blaze at the packing plant.

Truck owner Randy Koch, who with other residents used a garden hose to pour water on his roof and his fence during Wednesday’s fire, said: “They’ve got everybody upset on the block. . . . My daughter can’t sleep. I’m afraid someone might come back.”

Koch, 41, said he did not know who would want to burn his 1984 four-wheel-drive pickup truck but thought that both the truck fire and the plant fire were started by the same person.