Transients May Have Started Blaze at Abandoned Anaheim Elks Lodge

A fire that may have been caused by transients swept through the abandoned Anaheim Elks Lodge early Saturday, causing thousands of dollars in damage but no injuries, authorities said.

A transient woman, identified as April Brown, was found inside the building when firefighters arrived but was not hurt.

The exact cause of the blaze was not immediately known, but investigators said the old, three-story building at the corner of North Anaheim Boulevard and Sycamore Street could have caught fire if transients had been cooking or smoking in the structure.

Built in the early 1900s, the massive, white-columned Elks Lodge was closed about 10 years ago and has been vacant ever since. Though boarded up to keep people out, officials said transients and homeless people had been known to make their way inside the building in search of shelter.

When 16 Anaheim fire units responded to the blaze at 6:30 a.m., Battalion Chief Ron Hamric said, the interior of the building was engulfed in flames. When a back door was opened, Hamric said, Brown stumbled out, scared but apparently not hurt.

‘There Might Have Been Others’

“She told us she had been staying there,” Hamric said. “She was a transient. There might have been others there, we’re not sure. She left and now we’re not sure where she is.”

Hamric said it took firefighters 90 minutes to bring the fire under control, but by that time the entire southwest portion of the interior, the old ballroom area, was gutted.

“I would say that we probably lost, due to fire damage, less than a third of the building,” he said.

“It is still under investigation and probably will be for some time,” he added. “The owners of the building will have to secure or demolish that section that received the major damage. At that time, our investigator will be on the scene to see what kind of physical evidence there is.

“The structure is just too unstable to put any of our people in there right now,” he said.

By late afternoon, workers were replacing the long plywood boards covering the entrances to the building.

Hamric said officials had been concerned about what could happen if the long-vacant building caught fire.

“It’s an old building and at the north end alone there are 20 separate rooms, like a maze,” he said. “I’ve been here 22 years and we have been concerned about that building for years, because of the way it was built.”