Fire Destroys 5 Apartments; Roofer Blamed

At least 25 people were left homeless Monday when their apartment building was destroyed by a fire that investigators said was caused by a worker repairing a roof with a propane torch.

Firefighters conducting a room-by-room search for trapped victims were forced to flee the burning building, escaping only four minutes before the roof collapsed in a drama witnessed by dozens of people. All tenants were later accounted for.

The afternoon blaze also threatened two nearby apartment buildings.

Tenants of the destroyed building at 24522 Raymond Way said they had little or no insurance on personal property lost in the fire.

But “material things don’t matter,” said Maria Torres, 37, who fled her apartment when neighbor Blanca Ramirez pounded on her door. “We’re alive. We’re alive.”

All five apartments in the building burned, and damage was estimated at $435,000 to the structure and $70,000 to contents. Two residents, a husband and wife, were treated at a local hospital for smoke inhalation.

The Orange County Fire Authority was called by several tenants and witnesses at 3:20 p.m. Two additional alarms were issued afterward because of the threat to the other apartment buildings, Division Chief Steve Whitaker said.

He said the wood-shingle roofing sent sparks onto the neighboring buildings with similar roofs, starting small fires that were quickly extinguished by firefighters climbing to the rooftops and scaling aerial ladders.

“When they arrived, the embers were raining down on the other roofs,” Whitaker said.

Investigators said a workman had been using a propane torch to heat tar paper at the roof’s edge to form a watertight seal. Either the roof was overheated or the torch came in contact with nearby wooden shingles, Whitaker said. Witnesses heard the workman calling for help, then asking for a garden hose, he said.

“The roofer knew he had started a fire,” Whitaker said.

Investigators could not find the workman or a representative of his company to talk to, Whitaker said.

Martha Guzman, who lives nearby, noticed the flames leaping from the roof of the building where her sister, Blanca Ramirez, lived with her husband and three children. She telephoned her sister, who was home with the children, then ran out to help. Guzman’s son, Hugo, 11, called 911.

In her apartment, Maria Torres was watching television with her 11-year-old daughter, Marisol, when they were warned to leave.

“We came outside and we saw some men trying to stop the fire, but it kept burning even harder,” Marisol Torres said.

The building’s owner was identified by officials as Bruce Navarro of Anaheim.

American Red Cross officials and volunteers arrived to help the families, saying they would be housed overnight in local hotels and would receive help from the Red Cross family services division for temporary housing assistance.