Recalling 1987 Hixson fire, firefighters get examined

Deepa Bharath

A two-alarm fire early Tuesday morning at a metal plating plant was

more than a routine day at the office for city firefighters.

For those who have been with the Newport Beach Fire Department

long enough, the blaze at Hixson Metal Plating Inc. was an eerie

reminder of a horrendous electrical fire turned chemical fire 16

years ago at the site that sent up a cloud of orange smoke and sent

down streams of silvery blue runoff gushing out of the gutted plant.

It was because of that earlier fire that the department required

all firefighters involved in Tuesday’s incident to undergo a medical

evaluation as a precaution, said Donna Boston, spokeswoman for the

Newport Beach Fire Department. That was one of the lessons of the

February 1987 blaze.

“Firefighters are prone to danger of this nature,” she said. “It’s

part of their job.”

The 1987 Hixson fire is seared in the department’s memory not only

because of its intensity and the danger it presented to the

neighborhood, but because they believe it took the lives of Newport

Beach Police Sgt. Steven Van Horn and Newport Beach firefighter Larry

Parrish, who were the first to arrive on scene.

Van Horn died of leukemia 10 years after the fire. He was 48.

Colon cancer took Parrish when he was only 47. Fire Capt. Al Schmehl

still fights brain cancer, while Capt. Tony De Teeis battles

leukemia.

Hixson is the link the two deceased and the two living have, said

Training Division Chief Randy Scheerer, who worked on the 1987 fire.

“All four were on that fire,” he said. “We don’t know if we can

scientifically attribute their cancer to that one incident, but

Hixson was definitely the one commonality.”

Hixson President Douglas Greene did not return phone calls on

Wednesday.

The cause of Tuesday’s fire is still under investigation, Boston

said.

To many, 16 years would seem like a long time ago, Scheerer said,

but the few in his department who braved that blaze remember it.

The fire, which led to the evacuation of more than 200 people from

their homes for four days, taught his department valuable lessons

that came at a steep price -- the loss of lives.

Firefighters remembered those lessons at Tuesday’s fire, Scheerer

said.

“We were much more aware of the precautionary measures,” he said.

“We kept people out of the hot zone and we used a lot less water that

helped control the runoff.”

Since the 1987 fire at Hixson, firefighters have had annual

screenings and physicals. That was how De Teeis was diagnosed with

blood cancer, Scheerer said.

“When we go out to a hazardous material fire, we make sure

everything is covered and protected,” he said. “We’d be fooling

ourselves if we didn’t admit that history played a part in the

precautions we took yesterday.”

* DEEPA BHARATH covers public safety and courts. She may be

reached at (949) 574-4226 or by e-mail at deepa.bharath@latimes.com.