It Was Better . . . to Small Degree

The coldest spot in Orange County on Wednesday wasn’t air-conditioned. But at 16 degrees Fahrenheit, the “Cold Room” at the Diamond Newport Ice Co. was chillingly refreshing.

Outside and elsewhere, the mercury soared to 93 degrees by noon at the El Toro Marine Corps Air Station Weather Center. Although temperatures were down a few degrees from Tuesday’s record-breaking triple digits, construction workers and highway commuters, schoolchildren and baseball fans still sweated out the third day of a Southern California heat wave. Firefighters battling a blaze in Crystal Cove even suffered heat exhaustion.

But inside the vast, gray “Cold Room,” three tons of bagged ice lay stacked high on frost-cracked pallets. A foot-long icicle hung from the wind chill machines blasting overhead.

“It’s kind of like being up in the mountains,” said production manager Craig Crawford, his breath billowing in front of him. “No heat, no humidity.”

While Southern California Edison Co. reported a second straight record-breaking day of electricity usage, Diamond Newport and other ice vendors, who suffered during an unseasonably cool July, expected record cold cash.

“I love this. It could stay this hot for 90 days straight as far as I’m concerned,” said Richard Kraft, president of Diamond Newport, which is on the site of what has been an ice house since 1909.

This week, the company has been churning out 400 tons of ice a day, around the clock since Monday. Diamond Newport delivers throughout Southern California, whenever major grocery stores, liquor stores, convenience stores, or anyone else needs “Bottled Water in a Bag,” as the blue plastic bags proclaim.

Other ice vendors were just as ecstatic.

“We’re saving for a down payment for a house. We might make it this week,” said Ellen Clark, who with her husband, Ken Ackerman, owns ABC Ice House in Laguna Niguel. Each morning this week, they have awakened with delight to the sight of a cloudless morning sky, filled with the promise of emergency orders from restaurants, convenience stores and others.

Demand for electricity set a record Wednesday, beating even Tuesday’s record. By 3 p.m., Southern California Edison was supplying 19,084 megawatts, above Tuesday’s mark of 18,735, the highest since the company began keeping records 100 years ago.

Tuesday’s demand for energy caused a power failure that shut down a mainframe computer servicing Cypress College and Fullerton College. Telephone registration has been extended for the fall semester through Aug. 12.

The steep demand for power Wednesday led to scattered outages throughout the day, said company spokesman Paul Klein. Of the 4 million customers served by the company, Klein said only about 2,200 customers at a time found themselves with no electricity.

As temperatures climbed over the past few days, hospitals and clinics saw an increase in patients with heat-related illness, said Dr. Robert Winokur, director of Emergency Medicine at Mission Hospital Regional Medical Center in Mission Viejo.

Since last weekend, 15 people have come through the hospital’s emergency room with heat-related illnesses--which include fainting, muscle cramping and flu-like symptoms. Two suffered from heat stroke--the most severe and sometimes fatal form of heat-related illness, he said.

County residents could experience relief by the weekend, said meteorologist John Sherwin of WeatherData Inc., which provides weather forecasts for The Times. Today will be hot, with the first signs of cooling along the coast.

“The real cooling will be Friday and Saturday, with temperatures falling back to near normal,” Sherwin said.

At Diamond Newport, the hot temperatures don’t matter. Nor do the average monthly electric bills, which hover around $35,000. The enormous industrial ice machines grind, rattle, clunk and spit ferociously. The concrete floor is slick and cool, the air is so cold and dry it stops your breath. Foreman Jose Telles dons two pairs of socks, thick-soled boots, two pairs of pants, three shirts, a fleece-lined coat, heavy gloves and a hard hat before entering the “Cold Room” and the adjacent “Warm Room,” where temperatures can reach a sizzling 38 degrees.

“I love it. This is the only place to be in summer,” he said. “In the wintertime, forget it.”

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Also contributing to this report was Times staff writer Lee Romney.