3 Santa Ana residents ‘lucky they’re alive’ after fire
Three Santa Ana residents were being treated for burn injuries and smoke inhalation Thursday after a fire ripped through their two-story home, officials said.
About 40 firefighters responded to the 1900 block of South Artesia Street around 5:45 a.m. after a fire broke out on the lower level of a home, according to Capt. Steve Concialdi of the Orange County Fire Authority.
A mother and father were sleeping downstairs while their son and his wife slept upstairs. When the fire broke out, the father ran outside to grab a garden hose and the mother ran upstairs to wake her son and his wife, Concialdi said.
The fire “became well established,” Concialdi said, and as the three people ran downstairs they “experienced a great deal of heat and smoke.”
The mother, 60, son, 42, and son’s wife, 34, escaped to a neighbor’s house, but sustained burns to their ears, face and hands as well as injury due to smoke inhalation. They received treatment on site and were then transported to Coastal Community Hospital, Concialdi said.
[Updated, 12:05 p.m. PST Dec. 26: Concialdi said a firefighter/paramedic also suffered minor burns to his face and was transported to Western Medical Center in Santa Ana.
The fire caused about $300,000 in structural damage to the home and $150,000 in damage to its contents, Concialdi said. A home nearby also sustained about $10,000 in structural damage and $10,000 in damage to its contents, he said.]
When firefighters arrived on the scene, they found the house “heavily involved in the fire,” Concialdi said. He added that the home had no working smoke alarms.
“All three of them are lucky they’re alive,” he said. “We could have had three fatalities.”
Concialdi said the fire was under control by 7 a.m., but added that the house was “severely damaged.” As of about 8 a.m., he said, fire was still burning in the garage and two cars had been destroyed.
The cause of the fire was not immediately known, Concialdi said.
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Twitter: @MattStevensLAT
irfan.khan@latimes.com
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