Flames consume Harbor Ridge mansion

Jennifer Kho

HARBOR RIDGE -- Priceless antiques were turned into piles of rubble

Thursday after an early morning fire gutted a multimillion-dollar home on

Ridgeline Drive.

“It was a gorgeous house,” said Jean Valderheide, mother of Jennifer

Cocco, one of the homeowners. “She had all these beautiful antiques,

paintings and handmade rugs from Belgium. Everything in there was custom

made. They had everything hand painted, even small murals in the

children’s rooms.”

Cocco has lived at 17 Ridgeline Drive with her husband, Dennis, and

their five children, for about a year. The home recently had been

remodeled, Valderheide said.

The family is on vacation in Africa.

“She promised her daughter she’d take her to Africa when she turned

13, and now they are on a safari,” Valderheide said. “Have you seen the

front entrance? It’s just a pile of debris. What a way to come home.”

The fire was reported at 6:28 a.m. when a house alarm went off at the

exclusive Harbor Ridge mansion. A light fixture on the front porch was

the first thing to catch fire and the blaze quickly spread to a gas line

in the attic, fire officials said.

“It was like a tornado,” said Dr. Mohammed Djahangiri, a witness to

the fire, speaking in German.

Djahangiri, a visitor from Aachen, Germany, is staying at a nearby

home.

“It was an enormous fire that rose straight out of the roof, and there

was dark smoke swirling all around it,” he said.

Police were first at the scene and notified the fire department.

Newport Police Officer Bill Beverly rescued the family dog, Coco.

The cause of the fire has not yet been determined.

“The investigators have to review the evidence, take photos and

analyze those. But at this point, I haven’t heard anything suspicious

about this fire,” said Donna Boston, emergency services coordinator for

the Newport Beach Fire and Marine Department. “When I got here, the

firefighters were streaming in sweat. The entryway ceiling collapsed, the

chandeliers fell and firefighters had to cut holes in the roof to vent

the fire. I heard reports that there was fire in the walls.”

Randy Scheerer, training division chief for the Newport Beach Fire and

Marine Department, said about 50 firefighters from different departments

were able to extinguish the fire in about an hour and a half.

One firefighter, Dennis Edwards, was treated for heat exhaustion,

fatigue and smoke inhalation at Hoag Hospital. He was later released.

A slate roof and lathe plaster walls made fighting the fire much more

difficult, said Scheerer, who was inside the house when the roof

collapsed.

Firefighters managed to salvage an antique Bible, some oil paintings

and other valuables, but the fire still caused millions of dollars in

damage, he said.

Boston said a specific dollar amount has not been determined, but the

house is estimated to be worth $6 million to $10 million. The antiques

inside would also escalate the home’s value.