Two Fires...Hmmm...

“It was an accident,” said Rebecca, a representative of Ocean View Villas, following a dumpster fire outside the hotel’s offices on Sunset Cliffs Boulevard. “We’re doing some internal investigating. It’s definitely some internal housekeeping issue. I'm not really comfortable talking about it.”

Two fire trucks, two police cars, and a whole lot of fire retardant worked together to successfully extinguish fires that started inside two black, City of San Diego dumpsters: one in front of the building, one on the north side of the building near Point Loma Avenue.

What caused the fires? Juliana from the City’s fire communications center said (per the fire incident report), “It was determined that the cause was unintentional. It was not an act of arson…zero property loss…they’re not going to investigate it any further.”

When asked what the damages were, SDFD public information officer Maurice Luque said, “An electrical panel adjacent one of the dumpsters was affected. It was determined that there was $5000 damage to the exterior, no interior damage.”

How does one determine whether or not a fire is unintentional or arson? Luque said, “I don’t know how they did it in this case, but typically they talk with witnesses, look through trash for things like coals, look at burn patterns, camera video…things like that.”

Were coals found in the dumpsters? "I don't know," said Luque.

Could they be mistaken about the cause of this fire? “Everybody makes mistakes,” said Luque.

The fires were extinguished within 15 minutes of the crews arriving.

For video of the scene, click here.