Costa Mesa Fire Department

Two Costa Mesa teens who climbed up a cliff in Newport Beach because they "had nothing better to do" were rescued by firefighters Thursday. Brian Sean Hawley and Danny Bougie, both 15, were trapped on the cliff off Galaxy Drive near the Newport Aquatic Club for more than an hour.

It was exactly a year ago that John P. Petruzziello felt the first pulsating sensations of a heart attack that took him away from his job as chief of the 130-member Fire Department. He had stopped at some property outside of Barstow after attending a conference of fire chiefs in Palm Springs when he felt the pain in his chest. He spent two months recuperating with rest and medication and never returned to work.

The new fire station sits on the edge of a cucumber and onion field, its unusual blue glass atrium and white tile walls gleaming over the freshly tilled land. The station, which officially opens today, cost more than $3.4 million to build and equip. Architecturally, it is unlike any of its brown stucco predecessors. Among the important facilities it provides fire protection for are the Orange County Performing Arts Center and South Coast Plaza.

Hazardous-materials teams from the Orange County and Santa Ana fire departments responded to reports of leakage of air-conditioning refrigeration chemicals at the Orange County Performing Arts Center on Tuesday night. A dispatcher for the Costa Mesa Fire Department said the spill was reported at about 8:30 p.m. in the Center's basement. It was not immediately known what chemical was involved or the extent of the spill. There were no reports of the hall being evacuated.

A fire in a two-story office complex Sunday night caused at least $800,000 in damage to 11 businesses, authorities said. The shell of the building, which smoldered into the early morning Monday, was so unstable that fire investigators were unable to enter it to determine the cause. It took about 100 firefighters nearly four hours to bring the blaze under control. The flames were reported at 6:58 p.m. at 1012 Brioso Lane, in the southwest corner of the city.

An early morning fire Monday caused substantial damage to the theater at Southern California College, officials said. There were no injuries in the 3:50 a.m. fire, which firefighters said broke out near electrical equipment in the 250-seat Center for Dramatic Arts. Investigators are trying to determine the cause. A spokesman for the Costa Mesa Fire Department estimated total damage at more than $1.3 million.

A fire in an air-conditioning system at the Los Angeles Times Orange County Edition's plant knocked out printing operations in the pressroom for a brief time Wednesday, fire and newspaper officials said. The flames were confined to the plant's main air-conditioning unit and were extinguished within 20 minutes after breaking out about 1:30 p.m., Costa Mesa Fire Department Capt. Scott Broussard said. No one was injured, fire and newspaper officials said.

One of the most commonly cited problems when fire inspectors check homes is weak or missing smoke detector batteries. In the hope of correcting that problem, Costa Mesa Fire Department officials are suggesting that residents change the batteries in their detectors when they turn back their clocks one hour Sunday to end daylight saving time. A working smoke detector cuts in half the risk of dying in a home fire, according to the department. The firefighters suggest using new alkaline batteries.