Fire Causes $2,275,000 in Damage to Historic Placentia Packinghouse

A historic Placentia building, once one of the busiest citrus packinghouses in the county, was severely damaged by fire early Monday.

The blaze at the old Bradford Brothers Packing House, 341 S. Melrose Ave., erupted at 3:25 a.m. and was not contained until 6:30 a.m. Orange County Fire Department Capt. Lou Furst said that the fire was fought by more than 100 county firefighters and also city units from Anaheim, Garden Grove, Fullerton and Orange.

Damage to the 59-year-old structure was estimated at $2,275,000, Furst said. No injuries were reported. An investigation into the cause of the fire, which began on the first floor, would probably take the remainder of the week, he added.

“It was a very extensive fire, and the age of the structure was a major reason it took us so long to control it,” Furst said.

The packinghouse, also known as the Old Placentia Mutual Orange Growers Assn., was closed in 1978. Since then, a variety of small manufacturing businesses had occupied the building, Furst said.

Peak Use Was in ‘40s

At the peak of its use in the 1940s and ‘50s, 350,000 crates of fruit per year were packed in the building. But the pace slowed in the 1970s when orange production in the county was vastly curtailed as major growers began selling out.

At one time, Orange County boasted 50 citrus packinghouses. The closure of the Bradford Brothers facility in 1978 left only six smaller packinghouses in operation.

“The growers started selling out. It was just getting too costly for them to hang onto agriculture and not turn the land over to developers,” Bob Russell, the last manager of the packinghouse, said at the time the facility was closed.

The barn-style structure, however, was saved from demolition when it was awarded historical status.

Furst said the early-morning blaze was fueled by highly flammable plastics and plastic laminates stored in the building. He added that a remodeling project in the building made the firefighters’ task very difficult.

“The building was being remodeled and some ceilings had been dropped,” Furst said. “Other areas were sealed up. The firefighters had to do a lot of forceable entry to get to the fires.”