Fires Orange County

Laura Downing stood across the street and watched as dense smoke and water damaged rows of new clothes hanging inside her Laguna Beach store on popular Forest Avenue. "We just re-carpeted from El Nino two times this year . . . and now this. It's depressing," she said. Downing's store in the city's downtown area had just about recovered from the battering storms and mudslides of El Nino when a fire Monday morning gutted the top floors of a Laguna Beach commercial building, damaging 12 businesses.

A man was displaced Tuesday by an apartment fire that was apparently started by a soldering iron he had left on in his bedroom, firefighters said. Jesse Parinas, 35, also suffered minor burns to a hand and knee from the fire in an apartment building in the 1300 block of San Juan Street, Orange County Fire Department spokeswoman Kathleen Cha said. Investigators said Parinas told them he left the soldering iron on overnight after making repairs in his bedroom Monday.

A fire apparently sparked by a hot water heater caused about $200,000 damage to a condominium Sunday afternoon. The blaze at 431 N. Beth St. left occupant Richard Pier homeless. The Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross assisted Pier with shelter, food and clothes, said spokeswoman Annie Luger. Thirty-two Anaheim firefighters, assisted by some Orange firefighters, extinguished the flames in about 25 minutes.

A welcome lull in this week's strong Santa Ana winds may have saved a neighborhood of wood-shingled homes when fire broke out Thursday in Orange Park Acres, gutting one home and leaving three firefighters slightly injured. Despite a quick response by units from the city of Orange and the Orange County Fire Department, windblown embers from the 9:20 a.m. blaze ignited four other roofs before they could be put out, fire officials said.

Fire gutted a popular restaurant in downtown Fullerton early Tuesday, prompting officials to close the landmark building housing the business, a city spokeswoman said. Tony's Melody Inn at 106 S. Harbor Blvd. was destroyed and half of its next-door neighbor, Furniture Concepts, burned, spokeswoman Sylvia Palmer said. The two other businesses in the building escaped damage. "The actual damage has not been determined but is expected to exceed $1 million," Palmer said.

Neighbors of a Stanton family whose son ignited a fire in his home said Saturday that metal security bars on a window prevented them from saving the boy's 11-year-old sister, who was trapped when the blaze swept through her bedroom. "I was watching TV and ran out when I heard the screams," said John Salyers, a next-door neighbor. "I saw quite a bit of smoke. Another neighbor tried to get in through the front door, but there was too much smoke.

Fire burned through a downtown tire store for 3 1/2 hours Wednesday, injuring five firefighters and causing traffic delays for commuters trying to get to offices and businesses near the Civic Center Plaza. The fire, reported at 4:07 a.m., destroyed the B. F. Goodrich store at the intersection of Bristol and 1st treets, Fire Department Inspector Karl Ellman said.

A man found burning in a park in an upscale neighborhood here early Sunday morning was apparently slain before being set afire, police said. The victim, identified as Michael Vu, 23, was found burning about 6:30 a.m. in Aster Park in the College Park East neighborhood by a woman who lives across the street, Seal Beach Police Lt. Kenny Mollohan said. The woman put out the fire with a garden hose and called 911, Mollohan said.

Charles David Rothenberg, who set his son on fire eight years ago in a Buena Park motel, will be released today from a Northern California prison, his parole destination a closely guarded secret. Sometime after midnight Tuesday, the man who made national headlines for trying to kill his boy in 1983 was to be freed under heavy security from the maximum-security Pelican Bay state prison near the Oregon border.

A 56-year-old man died Monday after flames engulfed an add-on home and burned the back part of a residence in the 2100 block of North Greenleaf Street, fire officials said. Coroner's investigators withheld the man's identity pending notification of relatives. An investigation is underway to determine whether the man died before or during the fire. An autopsy is scheduled for today. "The whole back end of the house was totally destroyed by the fire," fire spokesman Jeff Talmage said.