Candle Blamed in Fire at Condos

A fire, apparently started by an unattended candle, swept through a condominium complex in Rancho Santa Margarita on Sunday, destroying four of 10 units and damaging four others, fire officials said.

The residents of all 10 units were displaced by the blaze, and officials were unsure when the residents of the homes with the least damage could return.

The damage estimate was between $1 million and $2 million, and one firefighter was treated for minor neck and shoulder injuries, officials said.

Utilities to the complex, on Dorado near the intersection of Santa Margarita Parkway and Buena Suerte, have been turned off.

The American Red Cross was providing clothing, meals and temporary lodging to 18 adults and five children, said spokeswoman Lynn Howes.

Mary Munroe, 35, who lived in one of the units now destroyed, said she was taking a shower about 10 a.m., getting ready to go to work, when she heard pounding on her door and at the window.

She turned off the water and heard people yelling, “Get out! Get out!”

“I got my robe and went to the living room and I saw these flames were shooting across my patio,” Munroe said.

She credited a couple of men who were delivering a television -- to the unit where the fire started -- for alerting everyone to the flames.

“I don’t know who they were or what their names are, but they were the ones who were knocking on my window and everyone else’s. Thank God.”

Capt. Stephen Miller of the Orange County Fire Authority said the unit where the fire started was on the ground floor in the middle of the complex.

The residents were having the TV installed and had left a candle on a plastic dog enclosure unattended, Miller said.

The candle somehow sparked a fire and set off a smoke alarm, he said. The residents tried to put the fire out with an extinguisher that did not work, then used a mattress to try to smother it.

By then, the fire was out of control, Miller said. The fire first spread to an upstairs unit.

When firefighters arrived at 10:08 a.m., six minutes after the emergency call was made, officials summoned more crews because of the size of the structure and the potential for the fire to spread, Miller said.

About 40 minutes later, the fire was spreading rapidly among the connected attics, and fire officials called for more assistance, Miller said.

Munroe said it seemed the firefighters had the blaze under control, “and then all of a sudden I see flames shooting out of my roof.”

The roofs of two of the units collapsed and firefighters were ordered to pull back, Miller said.

“We had people on the roof but not directly over the involved units,” he said.

Officials then made a third call for more firefighters, Miller said, because of the work required to make sure the fire had been fully extinguished. Firefighters used thermal imaging cameras, similar to those police use in helicopters to detect body heat, Miller said.

Munroe said that she and her husband, Robert, had just purchased new furniture.

“I had the flu for three weeks and I thought that was the worst thing to happen to me -- and now this,” she said.

“Material things are replaceable. I’m just glad to be out.”