Officers Rescue Rossmoor Apartment Fire Victims

Two people suffered smoke inhalation Monday night in a Rossmoor apartment building fire that could have been worse if not for two off-duty law enforcement officers who evacuated residents.
   About 45 firefighters responded to the fire, which was reported around
8:45 p.m. in the 12000 block of Montecito Road, said Capt. Marc Stone of the
Orange County Fire Authority. The fire was knocked down in about 30 minutes and contained to the unit where it started, Stone said.
   A Long Beach Police Department officer and one from the California Highway Patrol were home and off-duty when the unit below them erupted in fire, they told a news photographer at the scene.
   They put wet towels over their faces and went door-to-door telling
residents to get out of the building, they said to the unidentified news photographer.
   One woman who suffered smoke inhalation was taken to a hospital for
treatment. Another was treated at the scene, Stone said.
   ``It could have been worse,'' Stone said.
   Firefighters from the Huntington Beach Fire Department assisted in
putting out the blaze, Stone said.
   Some residents were displaced and were being assisted by the American
Red Cross, but Stone did not know how many.
   The cause of the fire was under investigation, Stone said, but according to broadcast reports of witness comments, food left
cooking on a stove likely sparked the blaze. It was not immediately clear the source for that food burning claim.

--City News Service