SANTA ANA / VILLA PARK : Arson Suspect Held in Vacant House Fire

A 26-year-old Panorama City man was being held Sunday on suspicion of arson after he was arrested inside a vacant Santa Ana house where he told fire officials he had started a fire to keep warm, authorities said.

Elsewhere in the area, four people escaped unharmed from a residential fire in Villa Park that caused an estimated $100,000 in damage.

The blaze apparently was set by accident, officials said.

In the suspected arson case, Santa Ana firefighters responded to a call about 12:15 p.m. from a resident in the 1600 block of East 6th Street who reported a fire inside a house among some vacated for a freeway-widening project on the Santa Ana Freeway, Battalion Chief Tim Graber said.

Firefighters put out a small carpet fire inside the vacant structure, then discovered another fire in a vacant house next door, Graber said.

The suspect, identified as Daryl Thompson, 26, said he had started the fire to keep warm. Damage was minimal from both fires.

Fires in vacant houses abandoned for the freeway widening are commonplace, Graber said.

“We don’t normally get fortunate enough to find the people at the scene,” he said.

Thompson was arrested by Santa Ana police.

Fire department arson investigators will determine whether arson charges will be sought, Graber said.

In the Villa Park fire, county officials believe that sparks from a fireplace ignited roof shingles about 11 a.m., destroying the attic area of the house at 18002 Prado Circle.

The family of Christopher Simmons, 37, had apparently started a morning fire with newspapers, but there was no spark-arrester on the chimney, said County Fire Department Capt. Dan Young.

“That’s exactly the wrong thing to do,” he warned.

The blaze took 14 minutes to control. There was an estimated $85,000 in damage, mainly in the attic. No one was injured in the blaze.