The home at 2866 S. Palisades Road on Pleasure Point was the scene of two ugly incidents in less than 24 hours between Tuesday and Wednesday — a fire that destroyed the building and an assault of a cameraman the next morning.
At 7:30 p.m., Central Fire responded to reports of black smoke coming from the house. Emergency crews had a hard time controlling the fire or locating its source because wind from the ocean was blowing the thick black smoke directly into the road where firefighters were located, Central Fire Spokesman Mike DeMars said.
Eventualy, hose lines infiltrated the house and firefighters determined the flames were coming from two spots inside the building — through the loft area and under the home.
"Containing and extinguishing the fire was time consuming due to the fact that it was spreading through two concealed spaces," DeMars said.
The flames were finally contained at 9:30, which was followed by hours of extra work to extinguish the entire blaze.
No one was home at the time of the fire, DeMars said.
The home has been determined uninhabitable by Central Fire, but several guitars and other personal items were saved by firefighters.
"The area of origin has been determined to be the fireplace," DeMars said. "Several holes were found in the fireplace where it appears to have been damaged by rust. Embers from successive fires had apparently fallen through these holes to the floor beneath the fireplace."
A KSBW cameraman showed up on scene at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday to cover the aftermath of the fire. According to KSBW, two men emerged from the wreckage, demanded that the crew stop filming, grabbed the camera, broke it and pushed the cameraman to the ground.
Police were then called to the scene to investigate the assault.
