Burning Yule Tree Sets Home Ablaze

Three brothers who were attempting to dispose of their family Christmas tree by burning it in the fireplace set the roof of their Granada Hills home on fire Friday afternoon, causing $50,000 in damage.

Glen, John and Wilson Lanuza, and a friend who was staying with them, all escaped without injury when neighbors knocked on their door to alert them that their house was on fire.

The brothers, ages 19 to 25, tried sprinkling the fire with a garden hose, with little effect. Santa Ana winds quickly whipped the flames over the entire wood-shingle roof of the two-story house at 17151 Sunderland Drive. Los Angeles firemen, arriving a few minutes later, doused the fire before it spread to the interior, Battalion Chief Ted O’Miela said. Damage inside the house was limited to the collapse of the upstairs ceiling, caused by water falling from the roof. Damage to furnishings was prevented by waterproof tarpaulins placed by firemen, O’Miela said.

As firemen chopped away the charred rafters, the Lanuza brothers watched from the sidewalk disconsolately.

“We were talking about getting an artificial tree next year so we wouldn’t burn our house down,” John Lanuza said. “Just then, the fire started.”