Fires Damage 68 Units, Displace Hundreds at Santa Ana Complex

Two blazes raced through a Santa Ana apartment complex Tuesday, injuring three firefighters, heavily damaging 68 homes and displacing up to 500 blue-collar residents, many of them maids, janitors and cooks who tried to grab a few possessions before fleeing.

The five-alarm fire at La Serena Apartments on Lyon Street drew about 60 firefighters from various departments, including Santa Ana, Costa Mesa, Orange and the Orange County Fire Authority.

Three firefighters were hospitalized for heat exhaustion, smoke inhalation or dehydration.

It took firefighters about three hours to control the two blazes. Officials said they are investigating why the two fires, apparently unrelated, broke out so close together.

Throngs of renters milled for hours outside La Serena -- a two-story, 10-building complex with 187 units -- wondering if they had lost their homes and belongings.

“The windows exploded, and everything was burning,” said Brenda Arias, 25, a resident for four years. “I just grabbed my four children and ran. There wasn’t time for anything else.”

Several people were treated on the street by paramedics. Many residents streamed out onto the street lugging trophies, bags of clothing, strollers, speakers and computers.

The Red Cross talked to victims at the nearby Orange County Electrical Training Center to determine their needs, then took them to a shelter that had been set up at the Raymond A. Villa Fundamental Intermediate School. Late Tuesday, residents of both burned buildings were still evacuated, although renters in unaffected areas were allowed to return.

Residents said they were alerted by neighbors and firefighters who knocked on their doors. Many said that their smoke detectors had not sounded and that they realized there was a problem only when they heard screams or opened their doors.

Sofia Ortiz said she has repeatedly reported that the smoke detector in her unit does not work. But Maria Halverson, who works in a community center nearby and was at the complex planning a Christmas party, said she heard the alarms.

Apartment manager Esmeralda Gomez said that the detectors were inspected last month and that she heard them sound as the smoke enveloped the first building.

The first fire began about 11:30 a.m. in the second-floor home of Yadira Marquez, who said she was asleep with two of her four children. Marquez works at night as a janitor.

“I heard nothing, I felt nothing until there was a pounding on the door. I wasn’t even going to get it, either,” she said. “We have just about lost everything.”

The complex was built before code requirements calling for fire sprinklers in apartment buildings of that size. The complex’s most recent fire inspection was completed in February, according to city Fire Department officials, but the report was not immediately available Tuesday, said Santa Ana Fire Marshal Lori Smith.

No pending fire code violations are in the complex’s file, and no complaints have been received about any, she said. “Then again, it has no [sprinkler] system,” Smith added, “which is unfortunate. Damage of this extent could likely have been avoided if the complex had fire sprinklers.”

Santa Ana Fire spokesman Anthony Espinoza said firefighters had trouble putting out the blaze because there is limited access to the building, which has a common corridor that the individual apartments face.

The corridor was crowded with firefighters trying to get in and residents trying to get out.

“It was fortunate that the fire picked up in the attic and not in the hallway,” Espinoza said. “It would’ve caused a horizontal chimney, and people would be jumping and hanging out of their balconies.”

Kennedy-Wilson Inc., the Beverly Hills company that bought the La Serena property more than two years ago, sent an executive to examine the damage, said senior managing director Bob Hart. Damage was estimated to be several million dollars, according to fire officials.

“The city of Santa Ana is pretty rigorous in its inspections,” he said. “We’ve never had any problems with fires during our ownership.”

The second blaze began about 12:30 p.m. in the C building, behind building A. The fire started in the kitchen and destroyed eight units.

Susana Duran said the fire started in her apartment when her stove inexplicably exploded.

She was standing outside watching the first fire when firefighters searched her out to tell her about the second blaze. She said she was not cooking and didn’t have anything on the stove.

It took firefighters about an hour to put out that fire.

“It’s pretty weird. We don’t know how [a second fire] happened,” said Luis Aguilar, the complex’s maintenance supervisor.

The fires were a blow to residents, many of whom are recent immigrants who work in service sector jobs while paying monthly rent of $1,300 to $1,400 for two-bedroom apartments.

Ignacia Aguilar, 37, the mother of three children ages 13, 14 and 15, works nights as a janitor.

“I really hope we will recover something,” she said. “We just bought a refrigerator and a television. They’re little things, but they are our things. Who will pay for new ones?”

Asked about tenants who may have lost rent checks or money orders in the blaze, Hart said accommodations would probably be made for them. “Of course we would be reasonable and make allowances for those situations,” he said.

Red Cross officials said they would provide rent deposits for those residents who need new housing, as well as food and clothing.

Halverson said the Christmas party, scheduled for Dec. 13, will probably become “a chance for us to collect something for people who have lost everything and lost it so close to Christmas.”

*

Times staff writer Claire Luna contributed to this report.