SILVER STRAND : House Fire Damage Estimated at $120,000
Ventura County Fire Department officials say a smoke alarm could have alerted residents of a Silver Strand house in time to limit a blaze that caused $120,000 in damage.
The men would have noticed the fire--caused by two candles left burning on a wooden table--much earlier had they installed a smoke alarm, fire investigator Dave Gutierrez said.
“They’d have discovered the fire much quicker because it would have been in the smoke stage . . . ,” Gutierrez said. “All they had left to do was jump out a window.”
Resident Charles Higgins awoke late Tuesday night when he felt heat coming from somewhere in the house in the 100 block of Santa Rosa Avenue, Gutierrez said.
He opened his bedroom door to investigate, and flames singed his hair. After slamming the door shut, Higgins broke a window with his bare hand and woke his slumbering housemate, Paul Freeman.
Both men escaped the flames that engulfed the house. A living room, dining room and part of the hallway were destroyed.
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