Lake Forest Man Is Questioned on Fire in Laguna, 4 Others : Arson: 22-year-old is accused of impersonating a firefighter. He denies involvement in any fire.

ORANGE —  Arson investigators questioned a 22-year-old Lake Forest man for several hours Wednesday in connection with the disastrous Laguna Beach fire and four other blazes after he was arrested on suspicion of impersonating a firefighter, authorities said.

Authorities stopped short of calling the man, identified as Minh Quang Tran, a suspect, or even a possible suspect. He was being held in lieu of $10,000 bail at the Orange County Jail in Santa Ana on suspicion of receiving stolen property and impersonating a firefighter.

Tran, according to Orange County Fire Department spokesman Dan Young, said he wasn’t involved in any of the fires.

Fire officials are investigating at least five blazes that occurred in Orange County over the past nine days, including: the Laguna Beach fire, which destroyed 366 homes and blackened nearly 17,000 acres; the Anaheim Hills fire that burned two homes and damaged 27 others; the Ortega fire that wiped out 19 homes and 20,500 acres; and two small newspaper-and-gasoline-set fires in Dana Point and O’Neill Regional Park.

A man in a black Pontiac Fiero was seen fleeing the scene of the Anaheim Hills blaze; a man in a white Mustang was seen speeding away from the small fire in Dana Point.

Young said that Tran told investigators that he was in class at Fullerton College when the Laguna fire broke out Oct. 27, Young said.

A search of Tran’s green Volkswagen GTI, however, yielded several items investigators regarded as suspicious, Young said, including: five phony picture identifications from local fire departments, two Orange County Fire Department badges, a police scanner, radio, pager, helmet and protective coat.

All of which, Young said, indicates he’s a fireman “and he’s not.”

Tran aroused suspicions Wednesday, Young said, when he attempted to purchase an official Orange County firefighters uniform about 2 p.m. from the Uniform Center in Orange, where county employees buy equipment.

Employees there told fire officials they thought Tran acted suspiciously, Young said, plus he didn’t have a purchase order for the uniform, which is standard procedure.

“The guy didn’t fit the mold,” Orange County Fire Battalion Chief Ron Blaul said.

While Tran was attempting his purchase, Young said, a store supervisor telephoned County Fire Battalion Chief Bill Dean. Dean put an employee from the department’s training center on the line to speak with Tran, while Dean alerted members of the arson task force.

County Fire Capt. Ed Hardy and a state Department of Forestry investigator arrived at the store minutes later and began questioning Tran, who, Young said, insisted he was a new Orange County firefighter. Shortly thereafter, Young said, Orange police officers arrived and Tran’s car was searched.

Investigators wanted to know several things, Young said, among them:

“We want to know where he was when these fires started.

“We want to know where he’s been this past week.

“We want to know why he wanted the uniform.”

Yet, it was unclear how seriously investigators were taking Tran as a potential suspect in the Laguna Beach fire.

At one point, Young said, “I don’t think this is the first guy to walk in and buy a uniform. It’s just that given the circumstances, it’s a little bit higher profile right now.

“As of right now . . . we cannot link him to the fires.”

At the same time, Young said, “We’re not in the process of believing anything he says. There’s some things that need to be explained.”

Investigators were planning to question Tran throughout the night Wednesday and “check out his story,” Young said. Starting today, they also planned to trace the serial numbers on the firefighting equipment Tran had and see who it belonged to, Young said.

“It’s not his,” he said.

The beefed-up arson patrols also have resulted in the arrests of three teens who sparked two small fires in Yorba Linda.