Two Slightly Injured in Fire at Orange Industrial Park Site

A fire at a warehouse in Orange sent dramatic black plumes and flames into the sky Friday evening, and two people suffered minor injuries before the blaze was extinguished, authorities said. The cause of the fire was under investigation.

The blaze in the industrial park on North Manzanita Street was reported to the Orange Fire Department about 4 p.m. by several callers, Battalion Chief Rey Montoya said.

Fifteen-feet-tall bundles of foam-rubber carpet padding primarily were what burned in a 15,000-square-foot area of the building, Montoya said.

“Those things burn pretty furiously,” he said outside the building. Because the bundles were stacked high, the blaze was a “spectacular fire and a difficult one to fight.”

He said the owners hadn’t been interviewed yet.

One of the 40 firefighters who battled the blaze suffered heat exhaustion but was treated by medics at the scene and sent on to another assignment, Montoya said. A man who had been inside the building suffered minor burns to his head and hand and was transported to UCI Medical Center in Orange. Montoya did not know the man’s name or reason for his being inside the building. No damage estimate was available.

Neighboring businesses in the industrial park sustained little or no damage, Montoya said.