OILY RAGS piled at an illegal construction site on Perry Newberry Way spontaneously ignited two days after Christmas, causing explosions and a fire with flames that shot 30 feet in the air, according to deputy fire marshal David Reade from the Monterey Fire Department.

And on New Year’s Day, a restaurant at Carmel Plaza caught fire. The owner of Lenny’s Deli had been told he’d have to vacate the space by Jan. 6 in favor of a new restaurant. Investigators have not said whether the fire was arson.

Reported by a cop

On Perry Newberry Way, the outside of a garage, part of a fence and windows in a neighboring home were damaged, but the fire would have been much worse were it not for a cop’s fortuitous traffic stop and the fire department’s speedy response.

Carmel Police officer Chris Johnson, who had pulled a driver over at Carpenter and Fifth around 12:30 a.m. Dec. 27, was the first to spot the flames.

“He heard an explosion but couldn’t tell where it was coming from,” reported acting Carmel Fire Capt. August Beacham. “Then he heard a second explosion, went to investigate and saw flames coming up behind a house.”

Firefighters began arriving at 12:40 a.m. to find 30-foot-tall flames shooting from a 15-foot-by-15-foot pile of construction materials and equipment beside the garage of a house on Perry Newberry just south of Fifth Avenue, according to Beacham. The flames got into an oak tree as well, but firefighters attacked the blaze with hoses and had it extinguished in less than 10 minutes.

“They made an excellent stop, or the garage would have really been going,” said Cypress Fire Capt. Colin Macdonald, whose crew helped.

Instead, the damage was confined to the exterior wall and eaves of the garage and the fence, though the heat cracked the windows of the neighboring house.

Reade investigated and concluded a pile of oily rags had spontaneously combusted.

“Most likely what happened is the rags they were using to stain doors self-heated, because the product they were using, Minwax, does that,” he said, adding that the warning label advises users to place soiled rags in a container filled with water.

While the night was very chilly, and spontaneous ignition is uncommon in low temperatures, Reade said the fact the rags were inside a tent and perhaps covered by other items made it possible. The flammable tent produced the towering flames, and the exploding aerosol cans likely produced the noise Johnson heard.

Although the damage wasn’t extensive, homeowner Benny Enea won’t be living in the house anytime soon, according to city building official John Hanson. Summoned from his Salinas home at 1 a.m., Hanson inspected the property and was dismayed by what he found.

“In the six or seven years I’ve been doing building inspection, this is probably the most extreme case of building without a permit I’ve seen in Carmel,” he said.

The garage was illegally converted into a supplemental unit complete with stove, cabinets and flat-screen TV, according to Hanson. The electrical boxes were hidden by sheet rock rather than accessible as required, and wires protruded from them.

“It was terrible,” Hanson said. “He had a piece of 220-volt conduit going from the garage to the main house. That was enough for me to red tag it.”

Further investigation revealed Enea had “pretty much remodeled the whole home,” he said, including creating a cathedral ceiling and constructing an addition that sits on bricks rather than a true foundation. He also reportedly installed new gas lines.

Enea admitted he didn’t have a contractor, just a few workers, and said he didn’t know the changes required permits, according to Hanson. He said Enea seemed remorseful but had made efforts to conceal the construction while it was under way for almost six months.

Concerned about the safety of the home, Hanson ordered PG&E to shut off the electricity and gas to the property.

“There will be nobody living in that home for quite some time,” he said.

Enea, who was sited for the illegal work, can either undo it, apply for permits and have the construction done properly after receiving approval, or he can find a designer and an engineer to draw proper plans for the house in its existing state and certify it is safe, and seek retroactive approval, according to Hanson.

“I want everyone to be cognizant of the fact that there’s no need for illegal construction in our community, especially with the kind of department we have,” he said. “We go above and beyond to make sure we get the information people need. The excuse of, ‘I didn’t know,’ doesn’t go very far with me.”

Plaza restaurant

The Jan. 1 fire in Carmel Plaza resulted in smoke and water damage in the eatery where it originated, as well as in neighboring shops, according to Pacific Grove Fire Assistant Chief Dave Brown.

The blaze that ignited in Lenny’s Deli just before 9 p.m. marked the second for restaurateur Ken Spilfogel, who closed his Plaza Cafe after a fryer fire caused extensive damage there in September 2004.

Police officers, closely followed by the first Carmel Fire engine and ambulance, responded to an alarm and arrived to find heavy smoke pouring from the restaurant on the Plaza’s lower level, according to Brown.

In response, Beacham summoned CFD’s second engine and another ambulance, as well as crews from Cypress Fire Protection District and a chief from Monterey. Brown, PGFD Chief Andrew Miller and an investigator from Salinas Rural Fire Department also came.

But the restaurants’ sprinkler system had extinguished the fire before any of them even entered the building, according to Brown. Additional inspection showed it had not extended into the walls or other parts of the building, but the water seeped into businesses on either side of the restaurant, and smoke drifted into the space above it.

“We went into salvage and overhaul operations and secured the sprinkler system to stop its flow,” said Brown, who estimated the damage at about $50,000. They remained on scene until 2:15 a.m., cleaning up and waiting for the sprinkler company to replace the head so the system could be reactivated.

Although the fire started in the area of the stove, Brown said nobody was in the kitchen when CFD arrived, and investigators are still trying to determine what happened and when the last person left the restaurant.

Investigator Daren Wenger from Salinas Rural Fire Protection District is working to identify the fire’s cause and origin, and police will help determine if it was arson.

“We work with them when we start interviewing individuals — they’re trained a little bit more in interview techniques than we are,” Brown said, adding that the fire appears to have been accidental, but he’s not ruling anything out. “It could be an accident — somebody made a mistake — or somebody did something wrong.”

The lease for Lenny’s Deli expired Oct. 31, though Spilfogel continued to operate the restaurant, which was set to close Jan. 6. Firok Shield, who owns da Giovanni and Bistro Giovanni, will open a new establishment in that location, according to Plaza marketing manager Ryan Williams. Shield’s newest venue will likely serve lunch, cocktails and dinner, and Williams said the fire would not delay the new restaurant’s opening this spring.

“He does such a great job,” Williams said. “I’m really excited for him to come here.”