Fire guts garage

Marisa O’Neil

A house fire Tuesday morning gutted a garage and threatened a second

house in a quiet Mesa Verde neighborhood.

The fire likely started just before 8:45 a.m. in the garage of a

home in the 2800 block of Europa Drive, Costa Mesa Fire Department

Battalion Chief Chris Riley said. Flames spread to a neighboring

bedroom and came close to the house next door before firefighters

knocked down the blaze.

A “small amount” of gunpowder, shells and weapons were found in

the garage, but were properly stored, Riley said.

“We heard initial popping sounds [upon arrival],” Riley said.

Matt Hoss and fiancee Lauren Dutton were home at the time of the

fire but were not injured. They had just finished fixing up a studio

apartment unit in the house of Hoss’ parents, Craig and Eileen Hoss.

Dutton and Matt Hoss ran out of the house when they discovered the

fire. They attempted to douse it with garden hoses, but it was too

late, Matt Hoss said.

The cause of the fire is under investigation.

“I heard a loud explosion,” next-door neighbor Paul Martin said.

“It sounded like it came from the garage, sounded like something was

very wrong. I ran outside, and I saw the smoke.”

Fire fully engulfed the garage and an Italian cypress tree between

the two homes, Martin said. He and his wife also grabbed garden hoses

and tried to keep the fire at bay until firefighters arrived.

Embers from the fire landed on their new, fire-resistant roof, but

it didn’t catch fire, Martin said.

Firefighters from Costa Mesa and Huntington Beach responded to the

blaze and had it extinguished just after 9 a.m., Riley said. Damage

is estimated at $350,000.

Outside the garage sat a partially burned shop vacuum. A metal

garage door lay in a twisted heap.

The front of the house, other than the garage, appeared to sustain

little damage. The back, however, was heavily charred.

Fire appeared to spread from the garage into the apartment and

onto a patio cover, then ran along the patio to a bedroom at the far

end of the house. Debris filled a backyard swimming pool.

Tuesday afternoon, family members sifted through their

possessions, managing to salvage some irreplaceable family

photographs.

Wind also blew embers to a house across the street, Matt Hoss

said, but was quickly extinguished.

* MARISA O’NEIL covers education. She may be reached at (949)

574-4268 or by e-mail at [email protected].