Fricker Fire Site Cleanup Delays Arson Investigators

Cleanup operations at an Anaheim pesticide warehouse that caught fire and belched toxic fumes for four days, forcing the evacuation of 7,500 people, kept arson investigators from entering the building Thursday.

However, all but a handful of companies surrounding the Larry Fricker Co. were allowed to resume full or partial operations Thursday, city fire officials said.

A two-block industrial area west of State College Boulevard and north of the Riverside Freeway in Anaheim remained restricted to automobile traffic as the Coast Guard’s Pacific Strike Team and private contractors, wearing filtration masks and protective suits, sorted and tested chemicals from the building in an effort to identify them, and then prepare them for safe and legal disposal.

“I don’t think we’re real concerned about the possibility of (toxic) fumes in the area outside the building anymore,” said Tom Severino, on-site coordinator for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “We have found literally nothing. But any time you have these chemicals being moved around, there’s always a potential hazard there.”

Car Wasn’t ‘Booby-Trapped’

Meanwhile, Anaheim Deputy Fire Marshal Gail McCloud said that the Orange County Sheriff’s Department bomb squad determined that a blue Cadillac parked next to the Fricker warehouse did not contain an explosive device and was not “booby-trapped,” contrary to statements made Wednesday by another high-ranking fire official.

On Wednesday, Anaheim Assistant Fire Chief Darrel Hartshorn said the car “had been booby-trapped” and “set up to catch fire,” adding, “It didn’t work.”

But McCloud said Anaheim fire investigator Michael Doty and two arson investigators for the federal Treasury Department’s Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms bureau told him that “the car was not booby-trapped, nor was there a bomb in it.”

Suspicious-looking wires that helped spark the initial bomb scare turned out to be an overhead electrical line that burned during the fire and fell beside the car, McCloud said.

McCloud said that Hartshorn, who was in charge of the firefighting and evacuation operations at the scene, apparently had not been notified that no bomb was found. “That was the best he knew at the time, but it was not correct,” McCloud said.

Doty and the two ATF investigators have been to the fire scene but had not entered the warehouse by late Thursday because of cleanup operations.

“They walked up to the front door of the building,” McCloud said Thursday. “But they have not gotten inside, so we are still really on the outside looking in on this one.”

Fire officials have said the blaze is “suspicious” in origin. But they would not elaborate on their reasons for saying so.

“All we can say at this time is that the fire is under investigation for cause and origin,” McCloud said. “We have not ruled out anything at this time.”

‘Darn Good Arson Case

However, one investigator who asked not to be identified said the Fire Department has “a pretty darn good arson case going.”

“I think arson is suspected because it developed so quickly and in the middle of the night,” the investigator said. “It was well involved (in flames) when (firefighters) arrived and it was burning in an area you wouldn’t expect a fire to be. . . . It’s believed to have started in the office area and spread to the chemicals.”

Fire officials have not ruled out a theory that the smoldering flames were triggered accidentally by chemicals interacting and causing spontaneous combustion, according to investigative sources.

But another investigator, who also asked not to be named because of the sensitive nature of the case, said, “Not too many things just burn on their own. Think about it.”

A possible link between the Fricker Co. fire and a “carbon-copy” blaze that erupted early Wednesday in a pesticide and fertilizer plant in the Riverside County community of Thermal was being explored. Investigators said no connection has been found so far.

William E. Newberry, ATF acting assistant special agent in charge of the Southern California regional office, said assistance was offered to local investigators in Anaheim and Thermal because in fires “of such magnitude, we wanted to see if there was anything that may need federal investigation.”

Meanwhile, allegations of negligence on the part of the City of Anaheim that were contained in a multimillion-dollar, class-action lawsuit filed by San Francisco lawyer Melvin Belli prompted Anaheim’s acting city attorney to clamp a gag order on city personnel regarding the Fricker fire. That blaze broke out at 10:44 p.m. Saturday.

A second suit was filed against the company Thursday in Orange County Superior Court in Santa Ana, seeking $500 million in damages.

Officials Were ‘Negligent’

The Belli suit alleges that the Fricker firm officials were “negligent in the manner in which they stored or handled their chemicals” and that the City of Anaheim “maintained a dangerous condition by failing to (properly) inspect the plant and control the problem,” said Paul Monzione, one of the attorneys handling the case.

The Belli suit, filed Wednesday in Orange County Superior Court on behalf of Anaheim residents Angie Romero and Gerrard Tejalle, also alleges that Fricker illegally manufactured, distributed, maintained and stored hazardous chemicals in the 5,000-square-foot Anaheim warehouse.

“The safety precautions were not being followed,” Monzione charged. “If it turns up that they were doing their jobs, we’d be the first to say so. Right now, we feel we have enough evidence that shows they weren’t.” He said the City of Anaheim was named to assure the law firm’s right to discover evidence.

Monzione said he wasn’t sure how to reach Romero or Tejalle, but that both contacted the firm, as have another “20 clients today (Thursday).”

The second lawsuit was filed on behalf of Anaheim residents Paul and Esther Isenberg, two service stations and the stations’ employees. The elderly couple were evacuated from their trailer park home and both businesses were shut down because of the fire, according to their attorney, Lawrence S. Eisenberg.

Suits Provoke Ire

The suits provoked the ire of Fricker attorney Peter C. Freeman, who called the Belli suit in particular “a travesty,” adding that “there is no basis whatsoever at this point for a negligence claim. . . . It’s grossly premature.”

EPA coordinator Severino said the cleanup was expected to continue at least through the end of next week. For safety reasons, he said, a retail plumbing service and an auto imports business abutting the fire site would remain closed until then. A few businesses have temporarily moved operations elsewhere after retrieving vital files.

Severino said $100,000 has been allocated from the federal SuperFund for the emergency operation and more could be tapped if necessary.

Times staff writers Roxana Kopetman and Julie Anne Dart contributed to this story.