4 Firefighters Hurt in Home Blaze : Struggle: A fire that might have been extinguished in minutes burned for hours because aluminum sheeting over wooden roof shingles kept water from the flames.

Four firefighters were slightly injured Thursday while battling a house fire that burned for several hours because aluminum sheets placed over the wood shingles on the roof made it hard to extinguish the flames.

A family of seven and a live-in housekeeper were alerted by a fire alarm about 4 a.m. and were safely evacuated, Capt. Dan Young of the Orange County Fire Department said.

The fire, which apparently began among rags kept in a container next to the garage, caused damage estimated at $290,000, Young said.

The injured firefighters were treated at Placentia-Linda Community Hospital and released.

They were identified as Capt. John Latta, who suffered bruises to his head, neck and back when a garage overhang fell on him; Firefighter Dave Scarborough, who suffered a broken finger; Firefighter Richard Fulton, who suffered heat exhaustion from being in the smoke-filled attic for two hours, and Engineer Don Brown, who strained his back while pulling aluminum sheets off the roof for more than an hour.

The aluminum sheets had to be removed before the blaze could be controlled because the metal was keeping out the water, firefighters said.

“It seems everything we did just wasn’t enough,” said Latta, who was working most of the time on the second floor of the house. “It was just like being in an oven.”

Latta said he was walking outside to get equipment when the garage awning fell on him. “It drove me to the sidewalk so fast it’s hard to explain how it felt,” he said in a phone interview.

The fire, which started from rags soaked in wood stain and placed in a closed plastic trash bin just outside the garage, should have taken 15 minutes to extinguish but instead lasted for more than two hours, Young said.

The decomposing wood stain, which had been used by the family in remodeling the kitchen cabinets, released heat and ignited because there was not enough oxygen in the closed plastic container, Young said. Rags soaked in wood stain should be washed in water and dried before being thrown away, he said.

“This thing has beat us pretty bad,” Young said.

Forty firefighters were needed to extinguish the blaze, he said.

Aluminum is often used on roofs as protection from rain or embers from a fireplace. However, combustible material underneath the metal, such as wood shingles, should be removed first, officials said.

This roofing method has hampered firefighters in other fires countywide, and authorities are now considering making it illegal to cover wood shingles or other combustible roofing material with aluminum, Young said.

“The facts are these things are causing more problems than they’re worth,” he said.

The $290,000 estimated damage to the property, owned by the Michael Contois family, included $100,000 for vehicles kept in the garage--a Corvette, a Ford van and a Lincoln sedan.

Rescuers salvaged about half of the family’s belongings, Young said.

In the pre-dawn rush to escape the flames, the eldest child, Michael Contois Jr., 14, carried out 11-year-old Nicholas, who has cerebral palsy, Young said.

The family, now staying with friends, could not be reached for comment.