Small Fire at Coach House Puts Concert on Ice

The show didn’t go on Saturday night at the Coach House concert hall after a midday fire destroyed a room, triggered sprinklers and left the venue humid and smoky for hours.

Two Coach House employees and a tour manager for a visiting band were treated for smoke inhalation and minor burns, said Battalion Chief Mike McCoy of the Orange County Fire Authority. Damage to the San Juan Capistrano landmark was put at more than $80,000, mostly to a storage room, he said.

The fire was caused by a faulty toaster oven in the storage room, behind the box office, McCoy said. It was reported about 1:25 p.m. and was put out in about 30 minutes.

Damage to the concert hall was minimal. The carpet was soaked from sprinklers, but there was “no appreciable damage,” McCoy said.

The burnt-out room was covered with a messy mixture of water and soot. Some stools, albums and an expensive copy machine were destroyed.

The band Robert Bradley’s Black Water Surprise was to play, but McCoy said it wasn’t safe to turn the electricity on. Coach House owner Gary Folgner said canceling a Saturday night performance would cost the club about $15,000.

The Detroit band was “really looking forward” to playing, said Jamie Gorman, the band’s sound engineer.

“It would be nice if we could still play tonight,” Gorman said. “The smoky smell wouldn’t bother us a bit. Even the water wouldn’t. We’d just bust out the galoshes.”

The heat, however, was oppressive in the western-themed building after the electricity--and thus the air-conditioning--was turned off, and many of the rooms were nearly pitch black.

Several Coach House employees and crew members for the band were in the building when they first smelled smoke.

“At first we thought the [stage] lights were too hot,” said Gorman, who was setting up band equipment at the time. Soon, they saw smoke coming out of a balcony above the concert hall, which is just above the storage room, where the fire started.

In the kitchen, cook Jaime Diaz, 18, saw smoke pouring in. “It only took about five minutes for it to get very dark and hard to see,” he said. He and several other cooks ran out.

A wave of heat singed the hair and eyebrows of a Coach House box office employee when he tried to help extinguish the blaze, but his burns were not serious, McCoy said. Eric Weinbrenner, the band’s tour manager, was treated for smoke inhalation and released from San Clemente Hospital & Medical Center. Another Coach House employee was also treated for mild smoke inhalation.

The band was booked three months ago, said Sean Striegel, the Coach House talent buyer. This would have been the band’s first visit to the Capistrano club as a main act, he said. “It’s disappointing for us, for the band and for those who really wanted to see them play,” Striegel said.

No other shows were booked for the coming week, Folgner said. It’s unknown how long repairs will take.