Kevin Treinen, 22, woke up around 9 a.m. on Saturday to strange sounds from his roommate’s second floor bedroom,  at 1612 Havemeyer in Redondo Beach. Even though the sky was sunny, he thought he could hear rain pattering on the roof. Then he heard a crashing sound. When he opened the roommate’s bedroom door, he discovered the room was engulfed in flames.
“At first I thought it was my roommate Ken walking around,” Treinen said. “I didn’t expect the noise I heard to be a huge fire.”
Once he opened the door, black smoke spread everywhere. He fled from the house wearing the running shorts and sweatshirt he had been sleeping in. By habit, he grabbed his wallet and a pair of flip-flops.
“Luckily the fire department got here quick enough to contain it,” Treinen said. “I’m curious to see how bad it spread. I didn’t smell smoke until I opened the door. Maybe the neighbor did because his window was open. All I know is his [ the roommate’s] room is toast.”
According to fire officials, about 35 percent of the two-bedroom home was destroyed. All of the interior suffered smoke and water damage.
Four years ago, Ken Dao, 30, Treinen’s roommate and the house’s owner, gutted and remodeled the interior.
“Unfortunately I’m going to have to remodel it a second time,” Dao said.
Treinen suspects the fire was started by a candle Dao forgot to extinguish, but Dao believes it could have been because of a faulty electric circuit issue. According to Dao, a circuit had previously shot 220 Volts of electricity into the house and fried all of his appliances.
“It was a big incident [with Edison] then,” said Dao. “It could be something related. Hopefully we’ll get more evidence.”
Dao acknowledged that the previous night he had lit a scented candle. “I believe I blew it out,” he said. “I hope I did.”
“Candles are our worst enemy,” Redondo Beach Fire Department Division Chief Steve Hyink said.
Dao was not in the house at the time of the fire. He had left the previous evening to spend the weekend with his wife at their other home in Orange County.
“We’re just glad nobody got hurt,” said Hyink. “You can replace structures but you can’t replace people,” Division Chief Hyink said.
