A longtime Saddleback College professor died Monday morning in a house fire in Belmont Heights. ¶ Alan Lugena, 73, who taught 11 different art classes – many of them watercolor and drawing – for the college's Community Education Department, died around 2:30 a.m.
Josh Johnson, spokesman for the Long Beach Fire Department, told the Long Beach Press Telegram that the home had "pack-rat conditions" with pathways through the clutter. ¶ It took firefighters about 20 minutes to put out the fire that had engulfed the home on the corner of East Fifth Street and Grand Avenue.
A neighbor told the Press Telegram that Lugena and his roommate Patricia Babbitt, who also died in the fire, would build fires on cold nights, though an official cause has not yet been determined. ¶ Jennie McCue, spokeswoman for the college, remembered Lugena for being "very beloved by his students who took his classes."
"He was known as a very kind person who loved teaching his craft," she said.
1 comment:
This is just so sad. I've known Alan for years, have taken several classes from him. He was a wonderful man and loved teaching all his various art classes.
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