Shake Roof Fuels Fire at Apartments : Damage: Almost three dozen residents at Tustin complex run to escape blaze. There were no injuries. Red Cross is helping find temporary housing.

A stubborn fire fueled by a light, warm breeze tore through several apartments and raced across a wood-shake roof Saturday afternoon, forcing as many as 35 people to flee, officials said.

Firefighters battled for more than 1 1/2 hours before extinguishing the blaze at the Tustin Arms apartments at 15701 Tustin Village Way, officials said.

One apartment resident, identified only as a 23-year-old man, was taken to Healthcare Medical Center of Tustin because of stress, fire officials said. There were no reports of injuries.

About three dozen residents, forced to run from the burning apartment units, were searching for places to spend the night.

Investigators with the Orange County Fire Department, which provides service for the city, entered the blackened units to determine what caused the 3 p.m. fire. No cause has been determined. Officials estimated the damage at $450,000 to the building, $90,000 to contents and $2,000 to cars.

“I’m lost. I’m confused. It’s scary. It’s heavy-duty,” said resident Ricker Bondy, who along with his wife, Maureen, were burned out of their apartment. “You are a lost soul when this happens,” said Bondy, who sipped at a soda amid a cluster of other residents.

“I’m just counting my blessings that me and my lady weren’t destroyed,” Bondy said.

Men and women shuttled in and out of a small rental office to talk with Red Cross officials and apartment managers who were trying to find temporary housing in a nearby hotel. A large sign posted in the rental office read “We Want You To Stay”--an ironic sight in the wake of the events.

Two people who identified themselves as managers at the complex declined comment on the fire.

Witnesses said they noticed the smell of acrid smoke before seeing large flames, which sent up a column of brown smoke and ash visible for several miles.

“You could just smell it all the way around,” said Ebony Roebuck, 15, who lives in a unit unaffected by the fire.

Ramiro Sandoval, 35, said he was across from the first apartment that began burning. Sandoval, whose wife and two children were burned out of their home, said he heard people outside screaming about a fire.

“It happened so fast,” Sandoval recalled. As Sandoval’s family joined others who were fleeing the burning units, he grabbed a nearby garden hose and aimed a stream of water on the flames, he said.

He tried to spray the base of the flames but “the heat was so hot, so I said the heck with it. By that time someone was saying, ‘The Fire Department’s here. The Fire Department’s here.’ So, I dropped the hose,” he said.

The fire was largely confined to six of the 12 apartments that make up a wing in the northwestern corner of the complex, which is home to about 350 people.

All 12 units in the wing had smoke and water damage and were declared off-limits to residents, fire officials said.

The fire first tore through the six units and then jumped to the wood-shake roof, said Kathleen Cha, a Fire Department spokeswoman. “It’s not against the law (for this apartment complex) to have shake-shingle roofs, but this shows the danger,” Cha said.

Firefighters trained hoses on all four sides of the wood and brick structures to guard against its spreading, Cha said. The fire never spread but firefighters were kept busy trying to douse new pockets of flames that continued to appear.

“Everything I own is gone,” said Sonja Loy, who rushed out of the burning apartments with her two young children. “My son came running up the stairs and said Jasmine’s apartment is on fire,” she said, referring to a neighbor’s apartment.

“By the time I threw open the door there was fire all around and it blew out my picture window,” she said.