If a private wall collapses into the public right of way, who’s responsible? Ask Costa Mesa.

Usually, the distinction between private and public property is clear, particularly in public rights of way, whose upkeep is a matter of municipal responsibility. But if a private wall falls onto a public right of way, who fixes it?

Just such a question landed at Costa Mesa City Hall this week, after homeowners on Purdue Drive were roused Sunday evening by the thunderous crash caused by the collapse of a portion of a brick wall along Fairview Road, south of Fair Drive.

“It was quite a crash,” said Ted Engard, the homeowner of a residence on Purdue near where the wall fell. “It was such a loud bang, some people in the area thought it was a car accident.”

Engard rushed to his back window to see what had caused the commotion and saw an Arco gas station across Fairview Drive beyond where his backyard wall had once stood. A section of laid bricks about 25 to 30 feet in length had simply collapsed onto the sidewalk below, near a city bus stop.

Costa Mesa’s Public Works Department Tuesday removed fallen bricks from a residential wall that collapsed Sunday on Fairview Road.

(Peggy Engard)

Luckily, no one was nearby at the time of the incident, Engard noted Wednesday.

“We’re so thankful the wall didn’t fall on anybody,” he said. “Somebody could have been standing behind the bus stop, and they could have been hit.”

That same thought may have been in the minds of public works officials, when a crew was dispatched to the scene Tuesday and removed the pieces of the fallen structure.

Costa Mesa spokesman Tony Dodero confirmed through a city engineer the wall was, in fact, private property, likely erected by the developer who built the homes nearby. Public Works Director Raja Sethuraman said property owners were not billed for cleanup of the bricks.

Engard suspects the wall — which runs from Villanova Road off of Fair Drive, then down Fairview roughly half a block — may have been put up by Jaques D’Arland, who reportedly built several homes on Purdue and nearby street Littleton Circle starting in 1979. Since then, many of the homes and lots in the area have been sold off or leased.

Following the wall’s collapse, Engard has placed a section of plywood across his yard to contain his son and daughter-in-law’s dogs, whom he regularly watches. He said the inside of the wall appeared to have collected water, which may have caused it to lose its integrity.

“The wall isn’t built to the code we would use now,” he said, describing seeing thin segments of rebar in the wall that had been bent by the slide. “[It] doesn’t seem very well built. But that whole wall all around the neighborhood is built the same way.”

Engard supposes he and his neighbor, who own the two parcels where the collapse occurred, may be forced to fund any kind of rebuilding effort on their own.

City officials Wednesday did not comment on the soundness of the entirety of the wall, but Dodero said staff were “assessing the remaining walls to determine what further actions are necessary.”