DANA POINT : Birthday Boy Helps Put Out Motel Fire

Robert (Bud) Folgner went to his Coast Highway motel Tuesday morning to celebrate his 71st birthday, not to engage in any heroics.

But Folgner wound up having a birthday he will not soon forget. Just after finishing his birthday cake, Folgner, the owner of the 60-year-old Dana Villa Motel, had to jump into action, put out a fire in a second-story room and help subdue a slightly injured and disoriented patron who had climbed out a window without any clothes to escape the flames.

The victim, Eric Turnipseed, 20, of San Clemente, was treated for smoke inhalation and transported to Samaritan Medical Center-San Clemente with minor cuts from the broken glass, said Capt. Greg Lonza of the Orange County Fire Department.

Officials said the fire, which investigators say started in a group of papers on a television night stand next to the bed, may have been deliberately set. The damage, including three broken windows, was estimated to be $3,000.

“Someone set this fire, but who we don’t know,” Fire Capt. Dan Young said.

The incident began about 10 a.m. when Folgner finished his birthday cake and strolled out of the motel manager’s office toward his truck. A few wisps of smoke, however, caught his attention.

“I thought it was a car smoking or something,” Folgner said. “But then it got thicker, and I saw a layer of smoke coming from the apartment. I grabbed two fire extinguishers and ran up the steps” to the second-floor unit.

Folgner, a former firefighter and plumber, broke into Room 30 and was greeted by a wall of flames. He doused the flames in the front bedroom with the extinguisher and had the fire out before the firetrucks arrived.

“It seemed to be coming from the mattress, but there were a lot of papers in the room for some reason,” Folgner said.

Because of the thick smoke, Folgner was forced back out of the room and said he had no idea if anyone was inside. Then he saw Turnipseed come bursting out of a downstairs window of another unit, bleeding from his injuries and yelling at anyone within earshot, Folgner said.

“He took a chair and broke the window. He was belligerent and giving everybody hell,” Folgner said. “You would have thought he would be grateful to the people trying to help him.”

Turnipseed had apparently broken out of the second-story window, climbed down a nearby ladder and entered an unoccupied apartment below, Folgner said. Then, possibly because he was disoriented, Turnipseed broke through the downstairs window too.

Firefighters found bloodstains on the inside of the second-story front door, indicating Turnipseed had attempted to get out but abandoned the idea and fled to the back window, Lonza said.

Turnipseed told fire officials that he woke up and found the room in flames. He then went to the front window, broke it and yelled for help, Young said.

Folgner said a man who had given a Long Beach address had checked into Room 30 about 4:30 a.m. and asked for three beds for him and two male companions. But Folgner said Turnipseed, who was the only one there when the fire broke out, was not the man who had checked in.

Earlier this year, Folgner, who has owned the Dana Villa since 1956, had won permission from the city to tear down the 42-room motel and build a 150-room hotel in its place. He is attempting to secure financing to get on with the project, he said Tuesday.