Fire Closes Seal Beach Pier Again : Landmark: 150 people are trapped on ocean end temporarily while the midsection burns. Some just keep fishing. Electrical wires apparently strike for second time in two years.

Flames burst from the midsection of the landmark city pier Saturday, stranding nearly 150 people--some of whom calmly resumed fishing and sipping coffee--while firefighters hosed down smoldering planks and sawed off pillow-sized chunks of blackened wood.

There were no reported injuries and the fire was quelled within an hour, according to authorities. Investigators ruled out arson and said the fire apparently was sparked by electrical wires, the same type of blaze that shut down the pier a little more than two years ago, on May 15, 1992.

Whipped by winds, Saturday’s fire erupted shortly after 3 p.m. as nearby anglers were trolling the sea for halibut and mackerel. Some witnesses reported hearing a loud blast before spotting plumes of black smoke and flames licking up from the underside of the pier.

While a small crowd remained trapped at the end of the pier by Ruby’s Diner, firefighters in yellow slickers battled the flames on the pier. Rescue boats, bobbing in choppy waves, shot cascades of water along the underside.

Once the flames were doused, firefighters kept the crowd waiting at the end of the pier while they hosed down the midsection and sawed and chopped several dozen wood chunks to determine whether the fire was out for good. Later, sheets of plywood were placed over the holes and small groups of trapped pier visitors gingerly crossed over the charred section and returned to the street.

Randall Martens, 37, of Norwalk wheeled over the damaged area with a shopping cart of fish supplies and a catch of mackerel that his friend, Victor Correa, 24, snared while waiting to be rescued.

“We were just getting ready to leave when we heard the blast,” Martens said. “I thought it was a plane at first because it was so loud. I looked back at my pole and then I started to smell smoke. Then I started to see shooting flames.”

The breezy winds spread the smoke quickly in full view of hundreds of spectators at a volleyball tournament about 100 yards from the pier. Authorities closed the pier and a stretch of the beach, where floating wood and debris was headed.

The beach reopened hours later, but it was unclear Saturday how long the pier would remain closed because investigators were still checking the fire-scarred section, which extended more than 50 feet along the pier and amounted to more than $350,000 in damage.

The popular pier has weathered a series of disasters over the years and this is the third time in a decade that it has been closed. The 1992 fire started in the same general area and was sparked by electrical wires in a lifeguard tower that has since been relocated. A few months later the Big Bear earthquake cracked the pier’s support pilings. In 1983, a fierce winter storm damaged the midsection.

Most of the people on the pier reacted calmly when the fire erupted Saturday, following the orders of a helicopter pilot who commanded them to head toward Ruby’s, the 1950s-style diner at the end of the pier.

“Everybody looked like they behaved themselves, almost like it was a rehearsal,” said Long Beach Fire Lt. Bill Forrester.

Some diners were actually more irritated that they couldn’t get fresh coffee in the midst of the crisis, said Eileen Szpilac, 25, a waitress at Ruby’s Diner who was trapped with customers.

“Nobody panicked,” she said. “They just kept eating.”

While the hoses gushed along the pier, some stranded visitors entertained themselves by listening to the radio or simply fishing. Bright-colored sail boarders skimmed along nearby on the glittering water. In the distance, they could see the flapping banners and tents of a small beach carnival.

“Everyone was really calm,” said Ben Wagner, 51, of Costa Mesa, who was on the pier with his son fishing for halibut. “Really everyone just kind of sat around. I had the radio on because I had a horse running in the fourth race.”

When one little girl started to get hysterical, Jean O’Dell, 45, of Torrance tried to comfort her.

“I told her, ‘We’ll get off.’ I thought maybe we’d have to be rescued by boat, but there were no free boat rides today. You might as well have a sense of humor. We were never really in much danger,” O’Dell said.

In past years when the pier has been battered by storm, quake and fire, local residents have responded with “Save Our Pier” fund-raising campaigns. The 1,865-foot structure is the longest pier in Orange County and was built in 1906. Sunset magazine declared it one of its favorite West Coast piers.

Saturday, as Martens pushed his squeaky shopping cart full of fishing tackle away from the pier, he seemed unfazed by the latest disaster.

“We’ll be back,” he vowed. “Just as soon as they reopen.”

Times staff writer Lynn Franey and correspondent Susan Howlett contributed to this report.