Tract’s Prefab Hearths Called Fire Danger

The city of Thousand Oaks has identified 91 flawed and potentially flammable fireplaces in a 15-year-old housing tract and is studying another 2,189 homes citywide for similar defects.

At least one city official became aware of a problem in the prefabricated hearths 10 years ago after a house fire, according to copies of city correspondence obtained by The Times on Thursday. But the city did not undertake a survey and learn of the scope of the problem until last spring when a concerned resident contacted building and safety department officials.

Barry J. Branagan, Thousand Oaks’ director of building and safety, said Thursday he is now attempting to negotiate with an Encino builder on behalf of the 91 homeowners whose fireplaces cannot be used until they are repaired. But a spokesman for the affected residents said he and his neighbors are angry because the statute of limitations prevents the city from prosecuting the builder, and the cost of pursuing a civil lawsuit may be more than the homeowners can afford.

“The city never did its job. They dropped the ball,” said Perry Angress, a resident of the Del Cerro housing tract near California Lutheran University. Angress triggered the city’s investigation last spring after realizing he and neighbors shared similar problems with their fireplaces.

Branagan said the concrete, prefabricated fireplaces were installed in violation of state and city building codes when the three- to five-bedroom homes were built between 1975 and 1978.

Branagan said wood frames were placed too close to the mouth of the fireplaces when they were installed, and the masonry on their fronts turned out to be a veneer instead of solid brick. Both building shortcuts can lead to fires, he said.

Branagan said all 91 homes were built by the the now-defunct Roger Boyar Development Co. of Encino. State records show that the development company went out of business in 1983.

Roger Boyar, who was president of the firm and now heads an Encino-based company called Boyar Development, said Thursday he has been speaking with the subcontractor involved in the houses’ construction and his insurance company in an effort to resolve the problem.

“We’re doing everything we can,” Boyar said.

The flawed fireplaces have caused two house fires documented by the city, the first in January, 1980, and the most recent last Oct. 29, Branagan said. Neither resulted in injuries, Branagan said, but the fire last October caused $40,000 in damage.

The 1980 fire prompted correspondence between the city and the builder.

A March 27, 1980, letter from Thousand Oaks’ senior building inspector to Boyar Development requested a survey of all prefabricated fireplaces in the tract where the fire occurred. The letter noted that the Ventura County Fire Department traced the cause of the fire to the fireplace, and that a subsequent investigation by the city building department revealed improper installation of wood in the decorative frame around the hearth.

Boyar said that after receiving the letter, his company had the fireplace manufacturer survey the tract. He said the development company was told the fireplaces seemed fine and that the problem appeared to have been an isolated case.

“Otherwise, this would have been taken care of,” Boyar said. “We sure as heck wouldn’t have sat around for 10 years with our thumbs in our ears.”

Branagan said the man who headed the building department in 1980 has retired and it is unclear why the city never pursued the case. The city’s old file on the issue is incomplete, he said.

In addition to the fires noted by Branagan, Angress said one of his neighbors experienced a fireplace-related fire in October, 1988. When those neighbors were having their fireplace and chimney reconstructed last spring, Angress said, they began talking with him and realized their hearths shared the same symptoms--particularly an unpleasant, charred smell that occurred when fires were lit.

After an insurance-company inspection revealed construction flaws in his own fireplace, Angress contacted the city and triggered the survey that eventually identified the 91 flawed hearths within the same housing tract. Since then, city inspectors have identified another 2,189 houses with similar prefabricated, concrete fireplaces and are in the process of studying them more closely to see if they were properly installed, said Branagan.

Twenty-five of those homes are located in a second tract built by the Boyar company, he said. The other homes, however, were built by other firms.