The vacant Marie Callender’s in Santa Ana was damaged in a fire on Saturday morning

Do you remember the Marie Callender’s restaurant that used to be located at 1821 N. Grand Ave., in Santa Ana? It has been closed for some time but things took a turn for the worse early on Saturday morning when a fire broke out at the abandoned building.

OCFA Firefighters responded to the scene at 1:29 a.m., according to the OCFA Twitter page.

The firefighters were able to put out the fire in about 40 minutes. No injuries to any civilians or firefighters were reported.

The fire caused $80,000 in damages to the building and $60,000 to the contents, according to the OCFA.

The SAPD questioned a few people who were near the building at the time of the fire, but no one was arrested, according to the O.C. Register.

A couple of people were questioned near the building early Saturday morning, but no arrests were made, said Santa Ana Police Sgt. Andy Alvarez.

Marie Callender’s filed for bankruptcy back in 2011, and ended up closing over 60 locations. Locally there are Marie Callender’s in Anaheim, Buena Park, Orange, Fountain Valley, Garden Grove and Westminster. In total there are 49 locations still open, according to their website. Their first restaurant opened up in Orange, in 1964.

Art Pedroza Editor
Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.
Art Pedroza

Our Editor, Art Pedroza, worked at the O.C. Register and the OC Weekly and studied journalism at CSUF and UCI. He has lived in Santa Ana for over 30 years and has served on several city and county commissions. When he is not writing or editing Pedroza specializes in risk control and occupational safety. He also teaches part time at Cerritos College and CSUF. Pedroza has an MBA from Keller University.

View Comments

  • Next on the burn list will be the vacant dilapidated red tagged office building at 17th & Wright St. The place has multiple access openings for homeless.

      • Blaming the homeless is a great scape goat. That always seems to be the suspect. A homeless person started the fire. Laughable.

        • Not so laughable after all. It happens quite often. They break into vacant buildings and as the buildings have no power they start small fires for cooking or staying warm. But they quickly lose control of the flames. A very common occurrence actually.

          • Very laughable. The saddleback building was also blamed on homeless. Blaming the homeless spread like wild fire after that incident. Original mikes to give a quick example was abandoned for years and didn’t burn down. Homeless where around also during the time it was empty. Now these empty buildings are being burnt down by homeless trying to keep warm ? You go ahead and believe that.

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