2nd Firefighter Silent at Hearing : Inquiry: Lawyer advises suspect to refuse to answer grand jury questions about Calabasas/Malibu fire. Contractor who helped fight flames also appears.

The second of two firefighters named as suspected arsonists in last fall’s Calabasas/Malibu fire refused to answer questions before a grand jury Tuesday, and a contractor who helped him and the other firefighter in the first few minutes of the blaze also appeared.

Steven R. Shelp, 29, refused to answer questions on the advice of his lawyer. When leaving the hearing room in the Downtown Criminal Courts Building during a break, Shelp had no comment on the investigation or on his appearance before the grand jury.

On Monday, Nicholas A. Durepo, 24, also was called before the grand jury and refused to answer questions--a common practice among suspects facing prosecutors seeking to gather evidence for a criminal case. Anything a suspect says before a grand jury can be used against him.

Sheriff Sherman Block has said investigators suspect that Shelp and Durepo, who were volunteer firefighters at the time, started the Nov. 2 blaze so they could put it out, become heroes and help their chances of getting full-time firefighting jobs.

Both men have maintained their innocence, contending that they happened upon the fire and made a vain attempt to put it out with the help of a plumber who also was driving by. The firefighters have neither been arrested nor charged, and both have maintained their innocence.

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Sheriff’s investigators initially doubted the existence of the plumber, Block said. But the man--actually a contractor named Robert Blakeley--surfaced last week after friends saw his photograph in The Times. On Saturday, he revisited the hillside where the fire started, along with homicide investigators and a county prosecutor.

Blakeley spent half an hour Tuesday testifying before the 23-member grand jury as to what happened in the first moment of the fire, when he tried to help Shelp and Durepo stop the spreading flames, which wound up jumping Old Topanga Canyon Road and burning across Malibu to the sea.

“It was a regular grand jury-type deal, but I cannot discuss what took place behind closed doors,” Blakeley said. “Obviously it took place. I was there, and I did testify.”

Shelp is now a firefighter with the Los Angeles Fire Department, although he has been placed on administrative duty until the investigation is completed. Durepo has been taken off active volunteer duty with the Manhattan Beach Fire Department.

Also testifying Tuesday was a volunteer firefighter and friend of Durepo named Scott Safechuck, who spoke with Durepo the night the fire started. Safechuck had no comment, but his father, Frank Safechuck, said the grand jury proceedings were active. “I know it’s been very intense,” he said. “At times, you can hear the conversation rising even outside those double doors.”