Motor home catches fire

Costa Mesa resident Brenda Wiebel stood in the driveway of her home as the firefighters wound up their hoses and thanked a still-soaking-wet Newport Beach resident Jasen Ruiz for saving her home from a fire Wednesday afternoon.

Ruiz was driving by Wiebel’s house in the 2500 block of Westminster Avenue when he saw Wiebel’s motor home engulfed in flames.

Wiebel had just come home, when she heard Ruiz honking his horn from the street. She rushed outside to discover her motor home, parked on the side of the house, was ablaze.

“Oh [expletive],” Wiebel thought when she saw the fully engulfed motor home, she said. “I’m really thankful it didn’t get the house.”

The motor home was next to a row of cypress trees that quickly caught fire, and also threatened to take down a nearby utility pole.

After honking his horn to alert others to the blaze, Ruiz jumped out of his car, hopped the wrought-iron fence encircling Wiebel’s home and grabbed two garden hoses.

Ruiz began spraying down the awnings of Wiebel’s home, possibly preventing the blaze from spreading.

“I was just glad I was driving by so I could help,” Ruiz said. “What are you going to do — I could tell she needed help.”

Wiebel isn’t sure what started the fire. She had recently opened the vehicle up to prepare it for a visit from her parents, who were to spend the night there Wednesday.

The fire attracted dozens of onlookers, who came out of their houses to watch the blaze.

Onlookers heard an explosion some speculated was caused by propane tanks on the motor home exploding, but the boom was more likely from a tire on the vehicle bursting from the heat of the blaze, said Keith Jones, Costa Mesa Fire chief of operations.

The motor home was already engulfed by the time 22 fire personnel, including a crew from Fountain Valley, responded, Jones said.

Fire crews had to cut open Wiebel’s garage door with a circular saw to make sure the blaze had not spread inside.

Nobody was injured in the blaze, Jones said.

Reporter BRIANNA BAILEY may be reached at (714) 966-4625 or at brianna.bailey@latimes.com.