HUNTINGTON BEACH : 2 Injured in Leap From Condo Fire

Two men were injured Wednesday morning when they leaped from a second-floor window to escape a fire that destroyed their Huntington Beach condominium.

Walter Vandenabbeele, 36, broke his leg when he landed on a portable barbecue grill, said Martha Werth, spokeswoman for the Huntington Beach Fire Department. He was taken to UCI Medical Center in Orange. His roommate, Robert Blind, 39, received minor injuries that were treated at the scene.

Blind awakened in the second-floor bedroom of the condominium in the 700 block of Pacific Coast Highway about 5:40 a.m. and discovered the fire downstairs, Werth said. Blind awakened Vandenabbeele and, with no other way out, the two jumped 15 feet from a bedroom window, she said.

Investigators were looking into the cause of the fire, which appeared to have started in the living room on the first floor, Werth said.

She said the condominium had no smoke detector and only one door out, on the first floor.

These guys are really lucky they weren’t fatalities,” Werth said. “With a smoke detector . . . they would have had plenty of time to get out of there safely.”