Fire Gives Amateur Athlete an Extra Workout : Good Samaritan: Runner arrived at hot spot just in time.

LAGUNA BEACH —  Fred Millard is used to hot, sweaty situations--he swims, bikes and participates in long-distance runs. But even the most grueling of triathlons didn’t prepare him for the workout he got while putting out a potentially disastrous fire in Laguna Canyon on Wednesday night.

Millard, 44, who works in residential home refinancing, was driving home to Laguna Niguel after a practice run with a friend in Irvine when he spotted a fire along Laguna Canyon Road just north of the junction with El Toro Road.

“I noticed smoke, then a ring of fire about 10 feet in diameter,” he said. “It was in dry brush about 10 feet from the road. It looked like the fire had just started up, maybe from somebody tossing out a cigarette.”

Millard stopped his car, grabbed a towel he had used in a morning swim workout and used it to beat down the flames. Three other motorists stopped to pitch in and the foursome spent 15 minutes battling the fire.

By the time fire units arrived, the fire was all but out.

Laguna Beach Deputy Fire Chief Rich Dewberry said Thursday that the situation could have been worse because “the canyon is particularly volatile at this time--more volatile than just about any time I can remember.”

Millard didn’t get the names of his three helpers. “We just shook hands and congratulated each other and left,” he said. “One of them was dressed in real nice clothes--slacks and white shirt and tie. The other two were in casual clothes.”

Millard, by the way, was in very casual clothes, still wearing his running shorts and tank top from his practice run.

“A policeman at the scene asked if I’d just been running by,” Millard recalled.