The Orange County Fire Authority has reported working two major fires in the City of La Palma in the past couple of weeks.
According to Capt. Greg Barda, OCFA Public Information Officer, firefighters battled a structure fire of a two-story home that eventually burned to the ground.
Upon arriving at the scene, “our crews began an aggressive fire attack,” said Barta in a video-taped statement. However, due to the volume of the fire, “we ended up making that a defensive attack against the fire.”
Barta later clarified that an offensive fire attack is when we have firefighters inside the structure on fire and on the roof, where they cut holes for “toxic smoke” to escape the burning structure “to make the environment more tenable.”
A defensive operation, he said, is “when we use firefighters off the building, off the roof and fight the fire from the exterior. We do that to protect the safety of our firefighters and protect the exposed buildings nearby.”
Barta said the home was a complete loss and an investigation is underway to determine the cause of the fire.
The OCFA was reportedly assisted in the fire by the Los Angeles County Fire Department (LACOFD), Anaheim Fire Department, Fullerton Fire Department, and La Palma Police Department.
No injuries or loss of life have been reported.
Also this week, the OCFA reported being back in La Palma to fight a commercial structure fire.
Crews were dispatched at 1:30 a.m. to the 5900 block of Fresca Drive, where an exterior pallet fire extended into the one-story structure, the Orange County Fire Authority reported.
They had the exterior fire under control at 2:02 a.m. and the interior fire under control at 3:38 a.m.
No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire was under investigation.
