Anaheim Apartment Fire Leaves 39 People Homeless

For the second time in 15 days, youths playing with bottle rockets Monday apparently sparked a blaze that gutted an apartment complex, displacing dozens of residents who could only watch as their belongings went up in smoke.

The fire, reported about 2:45 p.m. when tenants spotted flames leaping from the shake roof, destroyed the 19 units in the complex in the 3300 block of West Orange Avenue, said Anaheim city spokesman Bret Colson. No injuries were reported.

The official cause of the fire remained under investigation late Monday, but investigators at the scene said witnesses reported hearing and seeing bottle rockets being ignited before the fire started.

“We believe the fire may have been started by children playing with bottle rockets,” Colson said. “We believe it did start on the roof.”

The blaze was strikingly similar to a fire that gutted a Garden Grove apartment complex May 19 after two 16-year-old girls allegedly shot a bottle rocket onto the building’s cedar shake roof. That blaze caused more than $1 million in damage and left more than 100 people without homes.

In both cases, the fast-burning roofs were blanketed with pine needles, officials said.

Officials said the fire caused an estimated $1 million in damage and left at least 39 people homeless.

Firefighters managed to save three cats, a cockatiel and a parakeet from the building. Burned in the fire was a litany of precious mementos, documents and basic necessities mourned by residents.

“All my entire life is in there,” cried animal behaviorist Patricia Amezcua, 30, as she waited to see if her two cats--Baby Cinco and Chaca--would be rescued from her unit. “All my life’s memories, my pictures, my diaries that I have been keeping since I was 12 are in there.”

Amezcua and 27-year-old Dick Brown, her husband of six months, had just returned from seeing the movie “Dragonheart” and found the apartment complex in flames. Amezcua said a stuffed elephant that she has had since she was born was in her bedroom.

The stuffed animal has a special place in her heart because “it first belonged to my brother and was passed down to me. My family was so poor that that was the only toy I ever had in my entire life.”

Bassam Elhatem, 23, had lived in the complex for two months with his two brothers and one brother’s girlfriend. The Elhatems, from Lebanon, said they lost their passports, citizenship papers, and all the medical and citizenship papers belonging to their father, who recently took a trip back to his country and asked his sons to hold on to his documents for safekeeping.

“All I have is my wallet,” said Bassam Elhatem.

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About 45 firefighters from Anaheim, Garden Grove and the Orange County Fire Authority controlled the blaze in about 90 minutes and then began the arduous task of monitoring smoldering hot spots and cleaning up the mess.

The shake shingles and pine needles posed problems for firefighters, as did wind and high temperatures, Colson said.

American Red Cross officials set up a temporary assistance center at the Western High School gymnasium, across the street from the apartment complex, and high school officials brought ice form the cafeteria to cool heat- and smoke-weary firefighters who lounged on blankets under the school’s trees before donning their gear and reentering the battle.

Kristi Pauly, a Red Cross volunteer, said anyone wishing to contribute to the victims should drop off donations at the Red Cross’ main office in Santa Ana. Canned food, toiletries, clothing and “anything they have” would be gratefully accepted, she said.

Red Cross case workers will evaluate each situation and provide residents with housing, clothing and food vouchers, said Don Hairston, the agency’s director of disaster emergency services.

A faulty valve on the first firetruck to arrive at the scene frustrated firefighting efforts and delayed the assault on the blaze by at least 10 minutes, fire officials said.

The truck--which funnels water up a ladder, was positioned above the blaze, but witnesses said no water came out of hose. Anaheim Fire Battalion Chief Jerry Austin called the problem “uncommon,” and fleet maintenance workers were called to the scene to examine the engine.

“That should not have happened, but it did,” said Austin, who said two more trucks were dousing the blaze within 10 to 15 minutes. “The valve had too much pressure on it.”

Apartment manager Linda Romo dialed 911 when her son, Rob Withrow, 15, ran in to tell her the roof was burning. Withrow said he grabbed a garden hose and tried to douse the flames, but the fire spread too quickly and the smoke soon overwhelmed him.

He grabbed his cat and dog and ran, while his mother went upstairs and tried to rescue two cats trapped in the apartment of a tenant who was at work at the time.

David McDaniel, 22, who lives with his father and Decker, was at work nearby when the fire started. He said he was “just thankful” that Decker made it out all right. But McDaniel was also mourning the loss of about $2,000 worth of his $30,000 baseball card collection. Much of the collection was in storage, but a Michael Jordan card he valued at $1,000 was inside, he said.

Serah Clark-Harrison and her husband, Thomas Harrison, were in their apartment when Serah smelled smoke, she said as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Keith, in her arms at the gymnasium as emergency workers set up cots.

Serah’s mother, Mable Lowe, held the couple’s other son, 16-month-old Blake. The family lost all the baby’s belongings, including pictures that had been taken at a studio just days ago.