Tanning Salon Gutted, Shops Damaged in Fire

A fire at Laguna Beach’s rambling Lumberyard Mall in the heart of downtown charred one business and spread smoke and water damage to four other shops, officials said Saturday.

Firefighters received a flurry of 911 calls at 11:21 p.m. Friday reporting a fire at the wood-framed and shingled plaza in the 300 block of Forest Avenue.

Fearful that the fire would spread rapidly through the Tudor-style complex, the Laguna Beach Fire Department dispatched four engines and 45 firefighters, including units from the Orange County Fire Authority.

The fire was under control in about 21 minutes and was contained to the tanning salon, according to Sgt. Jason Kravetz of the Laguna Beach Police Department.

Firefighters have yet to determine how much damage was caused or exactly how the tanning salon caught fire.

Just hours after closing up shop at the Laguna Sun Tanning Salon on Friday evening, owner Paul Del Pizzo was awakened by a midnight call telling him that his second story business was in flames.

On Saturday morning, he surveyed the charred remains of six tanning beds.

Del Pizzo said firefighters told him the fire appears to have started somewhere near the salon’s front counter. “The place is toast. It’s totally gone,” Del Pizzo said of his 680-square-foot salon. “My head is so full of emotions now, but what’s really bumming me out is that these other businesses were affected too.”

Those businesses include a beauty salon, clothing boutique, bath oil store and coffee shop, all of which were flooded and filled with smoke. Like Del Pizzo, owners of these shops were alerted to the fire and rushed to the scene early Saturday.

“I was in hysteria,” said Melissa D. Dunne, owner of the bath oil shop, Escape.

By Saturday afternoon, Dunne and another shop owner sat outside the businesses with a bottle of wine, trying not to dwell on their misfortune.

“Right now all I’m going to do is sit here sipping wine,” Dunne said. “I’m not going to worry about it.”

In the wake of the fire, only one of the damaged stores, the coffee shop, had attempted to open. As customers ordered cups of brew, workers mopped the floor and large fans blew drying air across the floor.

Next door, at the clothing store, Magoo II Boutique, owner David Arnold made his way through heaps of sodden merchandise and emerged from the shop carrying a cash register.

“I can’t believe it,” he said. “At least this is something salvageable.”