Local News in Brief : Garden Grove : Girl, 17, Sought After Home Destroyed by Fire

A suspicious early morning blaze destroyed a home Thursday and investigators were looking for a 17-year-old girl who lived there but was missing after the fire, officials said.

The girl apparently knocked on her next door neighbor’s door about 2 a.m. Thursday and asked if she could borrow the garden hose to put out a small fire in her home in the 8900 block of Tracy Avenue, Fire Department Capt. Bill Dumas said.

The neighbors called the Fire Department, but when firefighters arrived the girl was gone.

The girl’s mother’s boyfriend escaped the fire without injury, Dumas said. The mother, who owns the home, was staying in Mission Viejo for the evening, Dumas said.

Firefighters, who put out the blaze within 30 minutes, searched through the ashes to see if the girl had been trapped inside, but all they found were two dead cats.

“We did a very complete search of the house and there was no body in the house,” Dumas said. “We’re looking for the 17-year-old girl. She’s a key to the investigation into the cause of the fire. I’m listing it as suspicious right now. Unless she comes forward and talks to me, then I’m going to think she knows something.”

The man in the house, who was not identified, did not provide investigators with any information, Dumas said.

The fire caused an estimated $185,000 damage.