YORBA LINDA : House Fire Caused by Tossed Cigarette

A discarded cigarette tossed on to the wood-shingled roof of a house caused a fire that resulted in an estimated $200,000 in damage, fire officials said Thursday.

The fire broke out about 3:45 p.m. Wednesday afternoon in the 4300 block of Mahogany Circle.

Flames were about 20 feet high when firefighters arrived, Orange County Fire Department spokeswoman Maria Sabol said.

“A teen-ager was home and had several friends over,” Sabol said. “Someone tossed a cigarette, which landed on the roof and started a fire that destroyed or damaged about 75% of it,” Sabol said.

It took 35 firefighters about 20 minutes to bring the blaze under control.

Approximately $150,000 of the estimated damage is to the structure, with about $50,000 of its contents also destroyed, Sabol said.

“They were able to salvage quite a bit of stuff but there is significant smoke and heat damage,” Sabol said. “Firefighters were able to stop the fire before it went into the garage area.”

Firefighters were concerned about the fire spreading to other homes because several nearby houses also have wood-shingled roofs.

But no other residences were damaged by the fire and there were no injuries, Sabol said.