Fire Destroys Model Home for 2nd Time

For the second time since January, a fire has destroyed the same model home in a posh Simi Valley development--gutting the structure just before the builders were set to open it to prospective buyers.

Arson investigators worked most of Thursday sifting through the ashes of the model home at 617 Starlight Court looking for clues to what caused the fast-moving blaze.

Fire officials ruled that a Jan. 6 fire that destroyed the same building was caused by an arsonist and are calling Thursday’s fire of “suspicious origin.”

When firefighters arrived about 5:20 a.m. Thursday, the home was fully engulfed in flames, said Sandi Wells, a Ventura County Fire Department spokeswoman.

“It’s suspicious to have it happen again,” Wells said. “We’re hitting this investigation pretty hard. We’ve got our own investigators as well as two from the Simi Valley Police Department.”

The fire apparently started in the front of the structure and burned all of the interior, causing the roof and the floors to collapse.

Fire officials estimate the fire caused more than $450,000 damage to the home and furnishings. The fire in early January also gutted the 4,000-square-foot home, causing an estimated $325,000 damage. The home was quickly rebuilt and set to be shown to prospective buyers Thursday, said officials at the scene.

The home is next to three other models, and the fire singed the stucco and tile on the neighboring building and damaged some of its window frames, Wells said.

The home that burned is at the extreme southwest edge of Wood Ranch in a fairly isolated development called Stone Canyon. The planned 84-home development--being built by the Woodland Hills company Brock Homes--borders open space and grassland.

“It’s really beautiful and right on the wild land-urban interface,” Wells said. “It’s actually really fortunate that this did not start a brush fire.”

Investigators said a brush fire was started by an arsonist about two miles from the gutted model, but they were not sure if the incidents are related.

Brock Homes officials said they have contacted the eight other homeowners in the development to reassure them and keep them up to date on the investigation.

“We’ve been assured by the Simi Valley police that the previous fire was an isolated incidence of vandalism,” said Anne Madison, a company spokeswoman.

Madison said the company has not had any threats against or antagonism toward its development plans. “This took us completely by surprise,” she said, adding that the company will rebuild the home.

Fire officials are asking that anyone with information on the fire call investigators at 388-4276.