Huntington Beach Fire Department

As part of National Fire Prevention Week, seven Huntington Beach fire stations will throw open their gates for an open house Saturday. Participating stations are all those but Station No. 2 at 16221 Gothard St., where a construction project is taking place. Visitors can tour the station, learn fire and disaster safety tips, look at fire engines, and take advantage of free refreshments, according to the Huntington Beach Fire Department. Open houses will run from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. For more information, call (714)

A Long Beach man was struck and killed in an intersection in Huntington Beach. Brad Lee Koehler, 47, of Long Beach, was killed Saturday when he was hit by a 2001 white Toyota Tundra pickup truck as he was crossing Beach Boulevard, just south of Talbert Avenue, at 7:17 p.m., said Huntington Beach Police Lt. Bill Peterson The exact cause is still under investigation, but it appears Koehler walked into traffic, and...

A magnitude-5.4 earthquake that rocked Southern California caused little or no damage in Huntington Beach, local authorities said. The Chino Hills-centered temblor occurred at 11:42 a.m., according to a preliminary earthquake report from the Caltech Seismic Net website. Authorities said few emergency calls came in as a result. The earthquake, originally estimated at 5.8, was felt in Huntington Beach, approximately 25 miles from the epicenter. The quake was 7.6 miles deep. No injuries or property damage was reported in Huntington Beach as of 12:15 p.m., according to Battalion Chief David McBride of the Huntington Beach Fire Department.

A woman was left homeless the day after Christmas when a fire destroyed her Huntington Beach condominium. The Orange County Chapter of the American Red Cross provided victim Nancy Walters one night of lodging following the Dec. 26 fire. The organization also provided her with food vouchers until her insurance company began its coverage, said Lynn Howes, director of public affairs for the Orange County chapter. The fire started about 11 a.m. inside the single-unit condominium on Vista Roma Circle while Walters was walking her two dogs, Howes said.

An early morning fire Tuesday at Cal Arm Industries, a metal plating company in Huntington Beach sent out a ripple of alarm as firefighters feared a possible hazardous chemical leak. Hazardous Material teams were called out to a small fire on Container Drive, when Huntington Beach firefighters learned the company uses hazardous materials in its processes, said Bob Colhane, public information officer for the Huntington Beach Fire Department. Hazardous Materials teams from Huntington Beach and Santa Ana arrived and extinguished a small fire that had ignited when an empty solution vat overheated.

Bryce Alderton The Huntington Beach Fire Department continues its investigation into the cause of a fire that swept through a commercial office building in Huntington Beach over the weekend, said department officials. There were no injuries and there was no one inside the building in the 17200 block on Gothard Street when the fire started at 8 p.m. Saturday, said Martha Werth, a Fire Department spokeswoman. The blaze was kept to one unit of a multiple-unit building and crews were still extinguishing the remaining flames at 10:35 p.m., about an hour after they arrived, said Bob Culhane, the Fire Department's public information officer.

The Huntington Beach Fire Department has received $19,584 in competitive federal grant funding as part of the Department of Homeland Security’s Assistance to Firefighters Grant Program. The funds will be used to purchase emergency fire shelters for wildland firefighting that will meet federal mandates. This is the fourth time the department has obtained this type of grant funding. It has used the $197,532 raised to purchase firefighter protective outerwear, exercise equipment, and other wildland firefighting equipment.

Huntington Beach firefighters managed to stop a fire at the downtown building holding restaurants Duke’s and Savannah at the Beach, authorities said. At 6:39 p.m. Sept. 18, the Huntington Beach Fire Department, with help from other nearby departments, responded to calls of a fire at the restaurants next to the pier. Fire and heavy smoke were coming out of the ventilation system of the building shared by both restaurants, according to authorities. In total, 51 firefighters were on scene, and the fire was extinguished that evening, according to city staff.

The Huntington Beach Fire Department responded to three RVs on fire in a storage yard Sunday afternoon, officials said. Three fire engines and a truck responded to the call at 1:28 p.m. Sunday and found three large, diesel RVs on fire in the 19000 block of Gothard, said Battalion Chief Bob Brown. “It was ragin’” Brown said. The fire created a large, black plume of smoke that smelled like burning rubber in the area, witnesses said. The fire started in one RV and spread to the two parked next to it, Brown said.

A fire broke out in the 10000 block of Merrimac Avenue at 2:31 p.m. Saturday. While the cause remains unknown, the Huntington Beach Fire Department reported that the blaze began in a pile of wood outside a single-family residence. Traveling along the side of the structure, flames entered the attic vents. According to Battalion Chief Mike McClanahan, a quick-thinking neighbor noticed smoke and ran over to tackle the debris fire. Using a garden hose, he then entered the garage to extinguish the attic fire.

One person suffered a minor injury in a residential fire that started at 10:06 a.m. Saturday in the 3800 block of Montego Drive in Huntington Harbour, according to the Huntington Beach Fire Department. The injured resident was treated at the scene and released, according to Battalion Chief Jeff Lopez said. The three-alarm fire was found between the walls of two two-story condominiums and the cause has yet to be determined, Lopez said. Firefighters arrived at the eight-unit condo complex at 10:13 a.m. and were able to contain the blaze around 11 a.m. -Anthony Clark Carpio

Fountain Valley has opted to stick with its own municipal fire service rather than partner with Huntington Beach or the county. The City Council directed staff in October to study the possibility of drafting a contract with the Orange County Fire Authority or merging partly or completely with the Huntington Beach Fire Department. Both were options to potentially save costs for the city. In the end, the city opted to maintain the status quo because it could better control costs in-house, City Manager Raymond Kromer said.

Huntington Beach has reopened its pier and beaches after a tsunami advisory passed without major incident. Lt. Michael Baumgartner, the city's marine safety operations supervisor, said the pier reopened at 1 p.m. and the beaches at 4 p.m. Huntington Beach closed its seaside areas early Friday morning in anticipation of waves from the tsunami in Japan striking the coast. The city was under a tsunami advisory from the National Weather Service, which is less urgent than a tsunami warning.

In two concrete bunkers at the Boeing Co. complex, members of the Huntington Beach Fire Department are trying to restore the city's first motorized fire engine. With the frame, engine and water pump in one room and the disassembled frame and a second fire engine in a separate room, the 1923 Seagrave Metropolitan Pumper engine doesn't look like much — yet. "Our goal is to restore it exactly like we got it in the 1920s," said Rex Rysewyk, a Fire Department engineer. The Huntington Beach Firefighter's Assn.

The man whose body was found in a burning car May 31 in Huntington Beach has been identified as Jim Purcey, an author and political activist. The Orange County Sheriff's Department's coroner's office identified Purcey, 59, as the deceased, although Supervising Deputy Coroner Dan Aikin declined to comment on how the fire occurred. "As far as cause of death, we're not releasing any details until we come to a final conclusion," Aikin said. A witness called the Huntington Beach Fire Department at 2:55 p.m. May 31 to an underground parking structure at the Pelican Cove apartment complex at 16960 Algonquin St. Firefighters arrived at the structure, where sprinklers had been activated, and put out the fire in about 12 minutes.

Two weeks after author and activist Jim Purcey died in a parking garage fire at his Huntington Beach apartment complex, police said there was "nothing suspicious" about his death. Supervising Deputy Coroner Dan Aikin of the Orange County Sheriff's Department and Huntington Beach Police Lt. Russell Reinhart said the cause of the May 31 fire was still under investigation. Reinhart said detectives were awaiting the results of a toxicology report, which could take up to two months.

Officials found a Huntington Beach man dead Monday afternoon in a vehicle fire, officials said. A witness called the Huntington Beach Fire Department at 2:55 p.m. Monday to the Pelican Cove apartment complex at 16960 Algonquin St. for a vehicle fire, said Martha Werth, department spokeswoman. The fire sprinklers were active when 17 firefighters arrived at the underground parking structure, Werth said. It took about 12 minutes to put out the fire, she said. When the smoke and fire subsided, officials realized there was a body in the vehicle and called in the Huntington Beach Police Department, Werth said.