BREAKING NEWS

Firefighters evacuated the fourth floor of the Balboa Bay Club & Resort after an apartment caught fire Wednesday evening.

Shortly before 5 p.m., George Lysak, executive director of sales and marketing for the club, returned to his apartment and found smoke billowing inside. He called the club’s engineering department, which then contacted the Newport Beach Fire and Police Departments and evacuated the building.

Within half an hour, the fire department — with help from additional personnel from Huntington Beach and Costa Mesa — contained the blaze. Residents of lower floors returned to their apartments soon after, but the fourth floor remained evacuated until fire inspectors could approve it.

On West Coast Highway, police diverted traffic away from the Bay Club. No one, however, was reported injured in the fire.

“The fire department did a good job,” Lysak said. “We [the Bay Club] did a good job of checking apartments, and it was contained relatively quickly.”

Lysak, who planned to spend the night in another room, said he was concerned about some items in his apartment, including photographs, a chest of silver and a diamond ring. Authorities could not say yet whether other apartments had been damaged.

Alexander Gaal, 94, who has an apartment on the third floor, said a firefighter knocked on his door and asked him to leave. About a half-hour later, the club’s security guard told residents they could go back to their rooms.

“They told me to get out of the apartment and go down to the lobby,” Gaal said. “I put on my shoes and put on a robe in a hurry so I’d be warm enough.”