PUBLIC SAFETY Garage fire costs Mesa Verde...

PUBLIC SAFETY

Garage fire costs Mesa Verde

residents $350,000 in damages

A Tuesday morning house fire gutted a garage and threatened

another home in a Mesa Verde neighborhood.

The fire started in the garage at about 8:45 a.m. and caused an

estimated $350,000 damage. Two residents were home at the time of the

fire, but no one was injured.

* Family members of a 24-year-old man critically injured in a

hit-and-run accident Monday night asked for the public’s help in

finding the driver who reportedly fled the scene.

Paul Awad was walking across the street on a marked crosswalk in

the intersection of MacArthur Boulevard and Bonita Canyon Road at

about 9:25 p.m. on Memorial Day when he was hit by a dark-colored

sedan, possibly a BMW, traveling north on MacArthur, Newport Beach

police said.

Awad remains in the intensive care unit at the Western Medical

Center in Santa Ana.

* A police motorcycle officer who has won awards from local groups

for making DUI arrests suffered a cracked pelvis Monday night after

he was hit by a drunken motorcyclist, police said.

Officer Dennis Dickens and his partner Tony Yannizzi were riding

south on the San Diego Freeway north of Harbor Boulevard in the

carpool lane at about 10 p.m. on Monday when a speeding third

motorcycle came from behind and hit Dickens’ motorcycle, police said.

Both Dickens and the driver of the motorcycle, Javier Gasga of

Mission Viejo, were taken to Mission Hospital where they are

recovering. Gasga was arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.