Old Packing Plant Destroyed : Fire Consumes a Page From County’s Past

Mel Hamilton woke at 5 a.m. Tuesday and heard on the radio that the old Olive Heights Citrus Assn. packing plant was burning down. Even though the plant closed 4 years ago, Hamilton’s loyalties as former manager moved him out of bed, into his car and to the scene of the fire.

There in the early-morning light, something tugged at Hamilton’s heart as he watched the flames crackle and spit and consume another relic of Orange County’s past. Only three operating packinghouses remain in a county that used to boast at least one in every city.

“There’s a lot of nostalgia,” said Hamilton. “When you work at a packinghouse, well, you don’t have to work there that long and you’re loyal to that house to the nth degree.”

The 4:20 a.m. blaze caused $1.5 million damage to the structure and $350,000 to the contents of the 60-year-old building, which sits on nearly 3 acres of land at 16831 Orange Olive Road in an unincorporated area near Orange.

Vagrant Taken in Custody

Fire officials determined that the fire was incendiary but were not certain that it was arson, County Fire Department spokeswoman Kathleen Cha said. Officers took into custody for questioning a vagrant who was seen in the area at the time of the fire.

Investigators were still trying to determine the specific cause late Tuesday as they picked through the charred insides of the 40,000-square-foot building.

“The building has suffered significant damage, “ Cha said. “The walls are cracked, and the floors are caving in.”

It took about 100 firefighters almost 2 hours to control the blaze, which destroyed about half the building’s wooden floors and roof.

Tuesday afternoon, Hamilton recalled with affection the history of the company, where he worked for 18 years.

Olive Heights Citrus organized in 1914 and in 1915 applied for membership in the Sunkist Market Organization, Hamilton said. The company’s first packinghouse operated until 1928 when a fire destroyed it. The second plant, the one that burned Tuesday, was built across the street from the original and operated there until 1984, when Olive Heights Citrus merged with Orange Heights Citrus Assn. in Corona.

Hamilton, 69, who has been in the citrus business for 42 years, is now manager of the Orange Heights plant in Corona.

“The volume of fruit was going down in Orange County, and most of it that we used was in Riverside County. So when we merged we chose to run the fruit through (the Corona) packinghouse because of its closeness to the area of growth.”

Hamilton said that many of the employees have worked there for

20 or 30 years. Some have been forced out of other plants that have closed.

“When something (like the fire) happens, you always have a soft spot in your heart and you hate to see it happen,” he said. “Packinghouses are a kind of a family-type organization, a clique.”

During the height of the citrus industry in the 1940s “there were packinghouses in each city and multiple packinghouses in most of the cities,” said John Ellis, the county’s deputy agricultural commissioner. “It was the principal industry in the county, and packing operations were just as common as gas stations.”

But as orange groves were replaced by housing developments, many of the packing companies either folded or merged with others in Riverside and San Diego counties.

“The property values are such that people like to put other kinds of buildings up,” Ellis said. Orange County plants still pack a lot of citrus, he said, but they are “more specialized and can handle a lot more fruit.”

Only three citrus packing plants in the county are still operating--in Irvine, Orange and Anaheim. Their managers said Tuesday that they were sad to see the Olive Heights packinghouse go down in flames.

“You hate to see them go,” said Mike Yorba, president and general manager of Irvine Valencia Sun World House in Irvine. “Quite a few have burned over the years. They are primarily all wood--oil wood and maple floors.”

Yorba, who has managed the Irvine plant for 13 years, said it is equipped with a sprinkler system and heat detectors.

‘A Lot of Emotion’

“You betcha we all hate to see something like that happen, even if it hasn’t been in operation,” said Larry (Butch) Leichtfuss of Villa Park Orchards Assn. in Orange. “To a lot of us who have been in the business all of our lives, there is a lot of emotion tied to something like that.”

Mike Johnson, manager of the Yorba Orange Growers in Anaheim, said his small company is not equipped with a sprinkler system. However, he said, Tuesday’s fire recalled to mind his plan to install a fire alarm.

PACKINGHOUSES STILL OPERATING Three citrus packinghouses remain in operation in Orange County: Irvine Valencia Sun World House,13424 Southwest Jeffrey Road, Irvine. First half of the packinghouse was built in 1928, the rest in 1938. Company packs an estimated 160 million pounds of fruit a year. Villa Park Orchards, 350 N. Cypress St., Orange. Opened in 1912 at its original packinghouse in Orange. In 1981 it moved to the Cypress Street building. Company packs an estimated 270 million pounds of fruit a year. Yorba Orange Growers, 1500 N. Lakeview St., Anaheim. Incorporated in 1936 as Anaheim Growers in the heart of Anaheim. Original packinghouse burned in 1943, and the company moved to the East Anaheim building.