Fire leaves two apartments unlivable

Deepa Bharath

NEWPORT BEACH -- Fire blazed between the inside walls of an apartment

complex Friday morning, causing about $50,000 in damage to two apartments

and making them uninhabitable, officials said. No one was hurt.

Firefighters responded to the call that came in about 11 a.m. from

Park Newport when a resident called to say she saw smoke coming from an

electrical outlet, Capt. John Blauer said.

Initially, it seemed to be a minor incident, but firefighters later

found flames and heavy charring when they opened the walls near the

fireplace and chimney, he said.

Two apartments suffered heavy damage inside their common wall, Blauer

said. It took firefighters about 35 minutes to control the situation.

Two battalion chiefs and twenty-six firefighters from Newport Beach,

Costa Mesa and the Orange County Fire Authority responded to the call in

four engines, two trucks, a paramedic unit and a paramedic engine.

Blauer said the city’s Building Department has taken control over the

damaged units. He said officials expressed concern about asbestos in the

roofs of the damaged apartments and declared them uninhabitable.

Other residents were able to return to two apartments that suffered

only minor smoke damage, Blauer said.

He said the fire seemed to have originated from the fireplace, but

that the cause of the blaze is still under investigation.