Fire in El Toro Condominium Kills Pair Believed to Be House Guests

Two people believed to be house guests died early Saturday in a fire that destroyed an El Toro condominium and badly burned another woman, fire officials said.

The victims, a man and a woman whose names have not been released, apparently were trapped in a second-story bedroom by the blaze, which started at 2:30 a.m. in the kitchen wastebasket, county fire spokesman Capt. Patrick McIntosh said.

Rosemary Rich, 32, who lived in the condominium on the 21000 block of Camino de Paseo with her husband, Marshall, escaped by jumping from the back window of another second-story bedroom. But she suffered second- and third-degree burns over 60% of her body, as well as cuts and a fractured right knee, McIntosh said. She was taken to the burn unit at UC Irvine Medical Center in Orange, where she was listed in serious condition. Her husband, a Newport Beach attorney, had fallen asleep on a downstairs couch about 11:30 p.m. Friday. He later told fire investigators he did not know that guests had stayed over, McIntosh said. He escaped without injury.

When Marshall Rich awoke to find his house in flames, he called upstairs to wake his wife, McIntosh said, then ran out of the house and used a neighbor’s phone to call the Fire Department.

McIntosh said firefighters did not realize anyone had died in the fire until they entered the building a few hours later and found two charred bodies in the bedroom over the garage.

But, McIntosh said, even if firefighters had known about the two upstairs, they would not have been able to save them.

“Whether we would have had that information when we first got there or not wouldn’t have made any difference,” McIntosh said. “That whole house was involved when we got there.”

The blaze, which 25 firefighters battled for an hour, was so intense that it melted the helmets of the first two firefighters who tried to enter the front door, McIntosh said.

Firefighter Greg Konishi suffered second-degree burns on one hand. He was treated at Saddleback Hospital and Health Center in Laguna Hills and released.

Neighbors, who said they awoke when they heard people screaming, ran to the house carrying ladders, but they found that the fire was so hot and had spread through the house so fast that they couldn’t climb to the second story.

“It woke us up, and I ran out there with a ladder,” one neighbor said. “We heard people yelling up in the top floor. I was in shorts and bare feet, and it was too hot to get up there.

Another neighbor said, “We could hear the people inside, but none of us could get up there.”

She said she ran to the scene and found Marshall Rich standing outside wearing a towel. Later, she said, she was “shocked when we heard about the bodies.”

Neighbors said the Riches had a party Friday night. It was not immediately clear whether the two who died had attended the party and stayed over when it ended.

McIntosh said the blaze caused $150,000 in damage to the building and destroyed $50,000 in contents.