Fire tears through moving business in Santa Ana; nearby gas station spared

SANTA ANA, Calif. (KABC) -- A raging fire tore through a commercial building Wednesday morning in Santa Ana, but firefighters knocked down the flames before they could spread to a nearby gas station and paint store.

The inferno began about 2:30 a.m. at a structure that houses a moving company in the 2900 block of Hesperian Street, according to the Orange County Fire Authority.

Seventy-five firefighters from multiple agencies responded to the scene and extinguished the blaze. No injuries were reported.

A hazardous materials team was initially summoned to the location due to concerns that flames might reach the adjacent Sherwin-Williams store.

"We're very lucky that the fire only stayed on one side of the building," said Capt. Larry Kurtz, an OCFA spokesman. "Something that has a high hazmat content, like a paint store, is required by building code to have a thing called a fire wall."

A fire wall such as the one at the scene has no windows or doors and extends from the floor through the roof, Kurtz said.

"There's no common attic space," the captain explained, "so if you have a fire on one side of the building it doesn't transmit to the other. And this is a situation where that worked out."

The cause of the fire was under investigation.