Women survive townhouse blaze

Sue Doyle

NEWPORT BEACH -- Flames ravaged a two-story townhouse early Tuesday,

trapping two women in an upstairs bedroom until firefighters arrived and

whisked them to safety.

Sarah Weeks, 20, suffered a second-degree burn on her foot and Kristine

Arnold, 20, received cuts on one of her toes. Both women were treated at

Hoag Hospital and then released, said Lt. John Blauer of the Newport

Beach Fire and Marine Department.

Authorities are still investigating the cause of the fire, which began

around 2:10 a.m. on the first floor of the home in the 2500 block of 16th

Street.

The fire enveloped the upstairs bedroom. Downstairs, the flames stretched

the length of the floor to the ceiling.

“It was a major inferno there,” Blauer said.

It took 21 firefighters to extinguish the flames. Authorities estimated

that the fire caused $130,000 in damages.

Hours later, the smell of smoke lingered outside the home. One glance

through a blown-out window said it all: blackened furniture was melted

together; pieces of orange stuffing from a couch were scattered all over

the floor; and the texture of one chair had burst into hundreds of

blackened bubbles.

The English Tudor-style residence, now uninhabitable, resembled a

deserted medieval castle tucked between single-family homes. No

surrounding homes were damaged.

Michael Zavala, a next-door neighbor, stood in his driveway, wiping soot

off his white car.

Zavala said he was asleep during the fire, but woke up when police

knocked on his door.

“They said to grab whatever I had and to get out,” Zavala said. “And I

did.”