For Many in O.C., 4th Was a Day at the Beach

More than 600,000 people celebrated the Fourth of July by flocking to Orange County beaches Tuesday, causing traffic jams and keeping lifeguards busy up and down the coast.

The holiday also sparked several incidents, among them a blaze started by illegal fireworks that nearly destroyed the home of a Garden Grove woman.

About 60,000 people who had hoped to watch a fireworks display at Mile Square Park in Fountain Valley were disappointed. Officials said a truck bearing fireworks for the display was delayed by an accident on the Grapevine on Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles County.

“There was not time to get properly set up,” said Roberta Defraga, a volunteer with the Fountain Valley Chamber of Commerce, sponsor of the Orange County Fiesta at Mile Square Park over the weekend. To compensate, there will be a free fireworks display at 9 p.m. Saturday at the park.

Fireworks for the Los Alamitos display were on the same truck, police said, but that city went ahead with its plans for a show, although it was delayed slightly.

Orange County beachgoers were not disappointed, however. By 10 a.m. Tuesday, clear skies and temperatures headed toward the middle 90s in inland areas had sent tens of thousands to the shore.

“There’s basically been no parking in the city since about 10,” Newport Beach Police Sgt. Dave Elliott said Tuesday afternoon of the traffic mess in his area.

The Huntington Beach sands alone drew an estimated 270,000. No major incidents were reported, although a man who suffered an epileptic seizure in the water was rescued at Huntington Beach State Park.

Bolsa Chica State Beach repeatedly had to close the gates to its parking lot, reopening only as spaces were vacated.

“I’ve been working here four years, and this is the busiest day I’ve ever seen here,” said Thomas Patrick Cormack, a senior park aide. He said that one lane of Pacific Coast Highway became a line of cars waiting for spaces to park.

In Newport Beach, every available police officer was on duty helping to control the crowds. Lt. Tim Newman, operating from a command post outside City Hall, said he expected that, as in previous years, police that day would be issuing thousands of traffic citations and arresting a couple of hundred people on suspicion of everything from being drunk in public to possessing loaded firearms.

“It’s a normal July Fourth in Newport Beach,” Newman said. “Just a heck of a lot of people.”

But for some, including Pauline Fresh, it was not a day to celebrate.

Fresh, 68, of Garden Grove, had taken her granddaughter and great-grandchildren to see a movie. When they returned several hours later, they found her home of 29 years extensively damaged by a fire started when a bottle rocket landed on her wood shake roof.

Neighbors said they had tried to put out the blaze with yard hoses before firefighters arrived about 12:30 p.m. The house sustained an estimated $105,000 in fire and water damage before the fire was put out about half an hour later.

“It’s terrible,” Fresh said, fighting back tears. “The whole ceiling of the kitchen is out, just caved in. The carpeting is ruined. My new furniture is ruined.”

Authorities were investigating how the bottle rocket landed on the roof. A neighbor, Mike Salsona, said, “There were kids all over lighting off illegals”--that is, illegal fireworks--”before the fire got started.”

“We really feel bad,” Garden Grove Fire Capt. Paul Christman said of the fire. “This is exactly why we’re so strict” about fireworks, he said.

PARADES, PARTIES: Huntington Beach event draws 250,000. Part II, Page 1.