Pacific Beach Man Critically Burned in Condominium Fire

A fire early Saturday left a 32-year-old man in critical condition and resulted in $50,000 damage to his Pacific Beach condominium, San Diego fire officials said.

Michael Shows, 32, was in critical condition second- and third-degree burns to 40% of his body, a nursing supervisor in the burn unit at UC San Diego Medical Center said Saturday night.

San Diego Fire Department Capt. Bob Summler said investigators determined that the fire was started after Shows had been smoking in bed.

He said there was no smoke detector in Shows’ fourth-floor home.

“It is felt that if there had been a smoke detector, the victim would not have received the degree of injuries that he did,” Summler said.

Firefighters were sent to the four-story complex on the 3900 block of Gresham Street at 4:17 a.m., Summler said.

The two-alarm fire was controlled by 5:15 a.m. by 60 firefighters at the scene, Capt. Jeff Frazier said.

The fire was confined to the fourth-floor dwelling, Summler said. He estimated $40,000 in structural damage and $10,000 in damage to the contents.

No one else was injured in the fire, Frazier said. The building was evacuated for several hours.