East Mission Viejo House Fire Causes 'Extensive Damage'

By Pete Schelden

A two-alarm house fire caused 'extensive damage' to a home in the Eastbrook neighborhood of Mission Viejo on Friday night, according to fire authorities. No injuries were reported.

Once they arrived at 6:23 p.m., 35 firefighters spent 22 minutes battling the flames before the fire was declared out, Orange County Fire Authority Battalion Chief Ken Cruz said.

The smoke billowed across Santa Margarita Parkway and could easily be seen from Trabuco Hills High, where a football game between JSerra and Trabuco was about to be played.

The fire apparently began inside the residence, Cruz said, and quickly spread outside the home on the 28300 block of Pinebrook. Once it spread to the patio, the fire threatened the homes of both next-door neighbors, he said, but the fire crew spared other homes from serious damage.

"We confined it to the one home with some minor damage to the home next door," Cruz said.

A neighbor's home incurred minor smoke damage because windows were left open, said OCFA spokesman Steve Concialdi.

The fire's cause and the cost of the damages will be determined in an ongoing investigation, Cruz said.

Firefighters took eight minutes responding to the fire, Cruz said. He said the first station to respond, fire station 45 from Rancho Santa Margarita, was the second-closest station to the fire. A closer station was already out on another call, he said.

One neighbor stepped out and saw "just clouds of black smoke and then flames" before she ran out of her house and called 9-1-1.