3-Alarm Blaze Guts Metal Shop in Simi and Injures Firefighter

A fast-moving, three-alarm blaze gutted a metal shop in the city’s industrial section Wednesday morning and sent a young firefighter to the hospital with first- and second-degree burns.

Brian Sullivan, 22, of Ventura suffered moderate burns while battling the flames that destroyed Profab Manufacturing Services, a custom metal polishing and engraving business.

The blaze also damaged the offices of Catlin Industries Inc. and Harris Communications & Electronics Inc., which are on either side of the polishing business in a large industrial building in the 400 block of Easy Street.

Sullivan was injured while trying to douse the billowing fire with a high-pressure water hose. He was stationed with his hose at a side entrance and held his position despite flames leaping out of the building and melting the top of his helmet.

“It was really, really hot in there,” Sullivan said as he rushed to get more hose.

He fought the fire for at least 20 more minutes before realizing his hands and shoulders had been burned. Despite the damage to the helmet, Sullivan’s head was uninjured.

Sullivan was taken to an ambulance where paramedics stripped off his uniform and poured water over his burns, while he kept muttering tiredly, ‘Really, I’m fine,” to Ventura County Assistant Fire Chief Richard Perry, who was standing nearby.

Holding Sullivan’s partially melted helmet, Perry said, “This equipment is so good that a lot of times--when you’re that close, and the fire is that hot--you don’t even know you’ve been injured.”

Sullivan was treated at Simi Valley Adventist Hospital and released, said department spokeswoman Sandi Wells.

The fire was apparently sparked by a loose wire that ignited a partition wall at about 9:30 a.m., said Vic Depaola, president of Profab Manufacturing.

Depaola and his 20 employees tried to douse the fire with extinguishers but were chased out by the flames.

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“It was just amazing how fast that fire moved,” he said. “You wouldn’t believe it.”

Kirk Richmond, president of neighboring Catlin Industries, which makes parts for computer printers, said he rushed to help his neighbors fight the fire but nothing could be done as the blaze leaped to the roof.

“We must have emptied eight extinguishers on that thing before running for it,” Richmond said.

Although firefighters arrived almost immediately, the flames spread quickly to the roof and walls that separated Profab from Harris Communications and Cartlin Industries. The blaze was then upgraded to a three-alarm fire.

Ten engines and two ladder trucks were used as the flames leaped more than two dozen feet into the air.

As a wall of fire surged from Profab’s open garage door, Simi Valley Police Sgt. Gordon Weeks climbed atop a pump engine and grabbed its chrome nozzle, aiming a powerful stream of water at the blazing roof. He later shrugged off the work. “They were just a little short-handed,” he said.

A few moments later there was a scare when the heat touched off bullets left in a storage locker at Profab. The popping of live rounds and heat from the flames drove some of the firefighters back behind trucks along a side driveway.

Atop the building, firefighters revved up chain saws to slice holes in the roof so they could aim hoses inside.

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As they worked, Pauline Rush, an office manager for Harris Communications, which sets up two-way radio communication systems for businesses, started hauling equipment out of her front office.

Rush and three friends carried out expensive testing equipment and the company’s steel safe before they moved across the street to watch the fire.

Fire crews put the flames out by about 10:40 a.m. but stayed on the scene for several hours to watch for hot spots and embers.

Depaola estimates his gutted business sustained $300,000 to $400,000 in damage. The neighboring businesses also sustained fire, smoke and water damage. An estimate of the total damage was undetermined as of late Wednesday.

Times staff writer Mack Reed contributed to this story.