Fire Destroys Home, Owner’s Antique Cars

An early morning fire Friday destroyed a San Juan Capistrano house along with the owner’s uninsured antique car collection, causing $226,000 in damage.

The owner, Dave Powers, 41, said his insurance company had canceled insurance on the cars in the wake of Proposition 103, the insurance initiative.

“There’s $100,000 that just burned in the garage,” he said.

Fearing that Santa Ana winds might spread the blaze to the tinder-dry shake roofs of nearby houses, fire officials sent 11 fire engines and 58 firefighters to the scene.

Firefighters brought the fire under control in 35 minutes and kept it from spreading, Orange County Fire Capt. Henry Raymond said.

“The weather conditions were such that anything could spread rather rapidly,” said Patti Range, a spokeswoman for the county Fire Department. “That’s why we were so aggressive in trying to stop it quickly.”

A roving “red flag” fire patrol first spotted the fire at about 6:40 a.m. and reported it before the owners of the house called for help, Raymond said.

A malfunctioning electrical wire ignited the fire in the garage, and it quickly spread to the second story and roof of the 3,000 square-foot home on the 27700 block of Paseo Barona, Raymond said.

Powers said his wife heard the fire burning before the fire alarms were set off. They and their daughter, Gina, escaped unharmed, he said.

“She ran back screaming ‘fire’ ” he said. “I heard the smoke detectors going off, and we jumped up and ran outside.”

Raymond said the fire destroyed Powers’ $75,000 Buick convertible, an $8,000 1968 Ford Mustang and a $13,000 1956 Lincoln Continental.

A malfunctioning Southern California Edison Co. transformer caused another small fire at 16th Street and Placentia Avenue in Costa Mesa about 8 a.m. Friday. An Edison spokesman said the transformer blew because of a mechanical malfunction and briefly disrupted power for about 600 customers.

Meanwhile, county fire officials said a fire that threatened to engulf a Laguna Niguel neighborhood Thursday afternoon when winds were gusting up to 60 m.p.h. had been ignited by a spark from a construction worker’s torch.

Fire spokeswoman Range said a worker was installing a pipe in an unfinished house and did not notice the spark, which was fanned by the wind until it ignited the uncompleted house and another under construction beside it.