18 Vehicles Destroyed in Blaze at Apartment Parking Structure

It wasn’t until they woke Wednesday for work that some residents of an Anaheim apartment complex discovered that a fire had destroyed 18 cars in an underground structure.

The fire, which caused about $200,000 in damages, started around 10 p.m. Tuesday in a storage room and spread to the cars.

Robyn Butler, a spokeswoman for the Anaheim Fire Department, said firefighters were able to save about 40 cars in the garage. One firefighter sprained an ankle.

Some residents of the Grand Resort apartments on Broadway said they heard the sirens and commotion Tuesday without realizing the location of the fire.

About 5 a.m., resident Deb Sauls’ boyfriend gave her the news. “He said ‘Deb, you’d better sit down; you lost your car,’ I said. ‘What do you mean?’ and he said ‘There was a fire last night; it’s gone.’ ”

“After a few tears, I looked and sure as [can be], it’s gone,” Sauls said after surveying the remains of her Honda Del Sol. “The spoiler is gone; the back window is gone. . . . The flames were shooting out and just melted the back ends of all the cars.”

The cause of the fire is under investigation. “Our investigators are not ruling arson out, but they’re not leaning as heavily that way,” Butler said.

Sauls said she has insurance. “But there are a lot of people here [who] only have liability [insurance]. It’s real sad.”

Residents had a more immediate problem Wednesday: getting to work. “They’re just coming out and discovering they . . . have to make other arrangements,” Sauls added.