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Fire Routs 100 From Complex

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TIMES STAFF WRITERS

Roaring flames and exploding auto gas tanks shattered the early morning hours for scores of apartment dwellers Wednesday as a fire raced through a carport and destroyed or damaged at least 30 vehicles.

The fire, which created pandemonium as about 100 residents scrambled to get themselves or their cars to safety, caused an estimated $600,000 in damage at the Hearthstone Apartments at 2321 E. Santa Clara St., just off the Costa Mesa Freeway. No major injuries were reported.

“It was horrifying,” said David Ferguson, 28, a travel agent, whose recently purchased 1990 Hyundai was destroyed. “I ran out to move my car and then realized it was engulfed in flames.”

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Authorities said the fire began shortly before 4:45 a.m. It triggered a series of gas tank explosions and burned for more than an hour, as 31 firefighters under Battalion Chief Timothy Graber worked hurriedly to keep the blaze from spreading.

When the first firetrucks pulled up, a 70-foot plume of smoke was in the air, and sheets of flame had spread through the wood-and-stucco carport, which eventually collapsed, except for some steel supports.

“I got my car out just in time,” said Peter Russell, who was visiting friends at the complex. “I heard people screaming and yelling and thought it was a domestic fight until I looked out, and there was just a wall of flames. It was super hot.”

Sharon Frank, a spokeswoman for the Santa Ana Fire Department, said 11 cars were destroyed and 19 damaged. One apartment was damaged.

The only injury occurred when a paramedic’s vehicle collided with a car at 17th and Wright streets on the way back to the station from the apartments. Frank said a woman paramedic suffered some back pain and was hospitalized for observation.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

As the blaze roared through the carport, witnesses said Wade Sherrill, who lives in the complex, ran door to door in a frantic bid to wake people up and get them out of their apartments.

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“He pounded on my door,” said Anita Martin, 35. “Until I woke up, I was thinking, ‘Man, is he joking with me? I’m going to kill him.’ He just pushed me out of the way, ran in and grabbed my two kids and their blankets.”

Martin’s car--a 1985, Ford Escort parked under the carport--was destroyed, but she and her children--Robbie Jean, 2, and Austin, 3--are fine.

“It’s like beyond nice that he (Sherrill) would do this,” Martin said. “A lot of people would just be worried about getting themselves out.”

Sherrill, 30, whose skin and clothes were still smudged with soot Wednesday morning, said a slight noise, which he thought was his girlfriend’s dog scratching one of their doors, turned out to be the crackling of flames.

He said he quickly dialed the 911 emergency line and ran outside yelling, “Fire! Fire!” He said he kicked and pounded on the doors of as many apartments as he could.

The gas tanks “all started exploding left and right,” said Steve Foskette, who credited Sherrill with getting him out of the apartment he had moved into just four days ago. “Man, this guy upstairs really saved me.”

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Afterward, glass from apartment windows that had been shattered by intense heat littered the grounds. The ruined cars, still parked in their spaces, were gutted hulks of gray metal. Melted plastic dripped the taillights and bumpers of the less-damaged vehicles.

Some of the cars were new or had been recently refurbished, including a 1985 Toyota truck that its owner, Jose Valencia, said had been customized for thousands of dollars.

At the Kumar family’s apartment, ashes and broken glass from a bedroom window and a sliding glass door covered the balcony. The screen to the door had melted, and firefighters had to put a hole in their living room ceiling to vent the smoke.

“I tried to get dressed as quick as I could so I could get outside,” said Sue Kumar, 38, whose family lost both its cars. “The flames were half an inch from the bedroom window.”

Some people were too stunned to go to work. “I spent all morning crying and didn’t go to work,” said Kim Breckenridge, 26, a marketing representative, whose newly purchased used car was destroyed.

“I had just signed the paper for the loan to be approved and sent the check to the person whom I bought the car from.”

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