A 7-year-old boy was getting ready for bed Saturday night at his Costa Mesa home when he smelled smoke. Then he saw fire in the garage and ran to tell his dad, who had already fallen asleep watching television .
“He had to shake his dad to wake him up,” said Costa Mesa fire Capt. Chris Coates. The man, William Rimmer, opened the door leading to the garage at his house in the 3000 block of Warren Lane and saw there was a blaze.
He closed it and both he and his son, William II, got out of the house. The garage was well involved with flames which were spreading to a motorhome on the driveway and a neighbor’s storage shed, Coates said.
It took 27 firefighters from Costa Mesa, Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach about 15 minutes after the initial 10:28 p.m. call to douse most of the flames, but some stayed for hours after ensuring there were no more flare-ups in the debris.
The garage was heavily damaged but firefighters were able to keep the flames from spreading to the main living area of the home. The motorhome and storage shed had minor fire damage.
Neither the boy nor his father were injured. Firefighters credit that to the child’s quick thinking.
“I asked him how he learned how to do that and he said ‘my daddy taught me,’” Coates said. “I invited him to come by the fire station and told him what a good job he did.”
The cause of the fire was still under investigation and it was unclear how much the cost of the damages are. There was no one else in the house at the time of the blaze.