Gas Line Break Ignites Condo Fires, Chaos : Accident: Traffic on Coast Highway in Laguna grinds to a halt for hours after a truck ruptures a supply line and furnaces ignite in nearby homes. No one is injured.

LAGUNA BEACH — A freak traffic accident sent a surge of natural gas through the supply lines of a seaside condominium complex Friday morning, causing furnaces to burst into flames and snarling traffic throughout the city into the night.

The accident happened at 10:40 a.m. when a 10,000-pound delivery truck swerved to avoid a car on South Coast Highway but hit a curb, breaking a protective metal plate and an underground gas line leading to the condominiums, authorities said.

“Somehow this caused a back surge of gas into the units,” Laguna Beach Police Capt. William Cavenaugh said.

Within seconds, smoke started pouring out of heating vents in the Laguna Sands condominium complex, while gas furnaces in about half of the condos caught fire.

“I heard a hissing sound and I smelled gas,” said Miriam Whatley, who has lived on the top floor of the complex since 1974. “All I know is our place was full of smoke. Our home is history.”

About 20 people, many of them elderly, were evacuated from the 32-unit complex at 1585 S. Coast Highway, but authorities said no one was injured.

About 70 firefighters from throughout south Orange County rushed to the complex, where gray smoke was billowing well into the afternoon.

Susan Keoleian said she was in bed in her fifth-floor condo when she heard an explosion. “All I could smell in the apartment was the gas coming in,” she said.

The accident forced the closure of the southbound lanes along South Coast Highway until 5 p.m. while northbound lanes remained closed until about 9 p.m. Friday.

Police said traffic was backed up on the highway from one end of the city to the other.

“Tempers were flaring out in the streets,” a police dispatcher said. “We got hundreds and hundreds of calls from people complaining about the traffic. But they were basically understanding after they found out what happened.”

Firefighters delayed reopening the lanes, she said, because “they felt there was still a hazard.”

After the fires were extinguished, residents were allowed to get possessions from their condos but were forced to find other shelter for the night.

Although a dollar figure for the damage was not available Friday, fire officials say 27 condos were damaged. Seven of the units were seriously damaged, and the others had moderate or minor damage.

The driver of the leased Cerritos-based SW&S; Inc. delivery truck, 40-year-old Robert Labrecque of Westminster, was not injured or cited by police in the accident.

He had apparently just finished delivering alcoholic beverages next door at the Surf and Sand Hotel, which was not damaged in the incident, Cavenaugh said.

Although firefighters kept the furnace fires from spreading to other rooms in the individual units, the complex sustained “tremendous” smoke damage, Laguna Beach Fire Capt. Jim Dempsey said.

Since many of the residents weren’t home at the time, firefighters had to break down doors and windows to get inside some units. Holes were cut in the roof to let the smoke escape.

Authorities did not know when the residents, many of whom are senior citizens, would be allowed to return home.

Meanwhile, volunteers with the Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross set up an evacuation center for homeless residents at the neighboring Seacliff Motel.

Late Friday, about 10 people and their pets from six units had sought shelter from the Red Cross, according to spokesman Stephen Chavez. Another 10 residents had found a place to stay on their own. Several of the condos are used as weekend and vacation homes and were not occupied during the blaze.