2nd Arson Fire in 11 Hours Partly Guts El Toro Preschool; Damage at $150,000

A second arson fire within 11 hours gutted part of an El Toro preschool early Monday, causing an estimated $150,000 in damage and temporarily shutting down the school, authorities said.

The blaze erupted about two hours after fire officials left the Kiddie Konnection preschool on Lake Forest Drive, where they had been investigating the earlier arson fire. It was set about 1:30 p.m. Sunday in a second school building and caused about $3,500 damage, Orange County Fire Department spokeswoman Patti Range said.

No one was injured in either fire.

Jon Ricker, a night attendant at a nearby gas station who reported the second fire at 12:20 a.m. Monday, said preschool owner Al Deddens told him that he had recently received arson threats.

Ricker said Deddens told him early Monday that “there is a guy that . . . threatened to burn down his house.” Ricker added that fire investigators asked him early Monday whether he had seen a silver Datsun 280Z near the school.

Fire officials declined comment on whether the preschool owner had received threats or whether a particular suspect was being sought for questioning. Deddens was unavailable for comment late Monday about possible threats against him or his business.

Ricker said he reported the fire after noticing smoke pouring from the top of the school.

“I had a gasoline truck at the station filling up the tanks . . . about 20 feet away from the building that was on fire,” he said. “The whole gas station filled up with black smoke. I had to get the truck out of there. I said, ‘Pack up and leave. There’s a fire going on.’ ”

Twenty-five firefighters from six companies battled Monday’s blaze for 24 minutes before controlling it, fire officials said. Sunday’s fire took 16 firefighters about 5 minutes to control, Range said.

Deddens, reached earlier Monday at the school, said he rushed to the site about 1 a.m. after receiving a call from the Fire Department. He said he hopes to reopen by Thursday. The school was scheduled to begin its summer session Monday morning.

“Our obligation is to the parents--to get the school open again,” Deddens said.

“The biggest concern is safety for the children,” added a friend who accompanied Deddens, but who asked not to be identified.

The man said parents who came to Kiddie Konnection to drop off their children Monday morning promised to return as soon as the school reopened. “They said, ‘No problem, we’ll be back.’ ”

Deddens said he will rent trailers to house the 35 summer camp students whose classrooms were destroyed. He added that he did not expect the move to interfere very much with the students’ activities, since much of their time is spent on field trips to local amusement parks and recreation areas.

The school serves preschoolers from 2 to 5 years old and grade-school children who are on summer vacation, Deddens said.

Fire officials would not say where Monday’s fire started. But Ricker said Deddens told him that it erupted in the school’s kitchen.

Much of the damage to the building, according to Deddens, was due to smoke. He said the two fires were the first such incidents to occur at the school.

Investigators said the blazes were unrelated to three arson fires that destroyed the Village Preschool in Yorba Linda last March. Those fires, which were set within an 11-day period, caused a total of $82,000 in damage. No one was injured in those fires.