Santa Ana House Where 3 Died in Fire Sheltered 15 People : Tragedy: Overcrowding is not believed directly responsible for the blaze, but the city has long sought to regulate the number allowed to live under one roof.

On Tuesday, Ernesto Andaya looked at the blackened shell of what used to be his bedroom and said he realized how lucky he and his wife are. They got out with their lives.

A woman and two children who shared the house with four families, including the Andayas, died in the explosive blaze Monday night. Five people were injured.

The coroner’s office Tuesday identified the dead as Jesus Castaneda, 5, and Melissa Sanchez, 2, and Melissa’s mother, Azusena Sanchez. Witnesses said the woman may have re-entered the home to try to save her daughter.

Karl Ellman, a Fire Department spokesman, said 15 people from five families lived in the five-bedroom home, and that overcrowding, while not directly responsible for the fire that started in the kitchen, contributed to the tragedy.

In a city where officials have long sought tighter restrictions on the number of people who can live under one roof, Monday’s blaze again raised the issue of safety.

City officials said that while the number of residents in the house did not exceed legal limits, there have been numerous cases of residents losing their homes and sometimes their lives in fires because of overcrowding.

“Fifteen people in any house is a lot of people,” said Jim Lindgren, the city’s building safety manager. “The numbers and belongings of those people certainly can contribute to inefficient fire rescue efforts.”

In an effort to challenge the state housing code that allows up to 10 people to live in an average-size one-bedroom apartment, the Santa Ana City Council in 1991 approved an ordinance that would effectively cut that number in half. The ordinance eventually was thrown out in court because it was stricter than state legislation.

But City Councilman Robert L. Richardson said that later this month, he will ask the board of the California League of Cities to endorse Santa Ana’s proposal for tougher state laws.

“People are going to continue to die, housing needs are not going to be met, and (the state) is responsible,” Richardson said. “I don’t know how many (deaths) it’s going to take for (change) to occur, for people to wake up.”

Andaya, 25, recalled the hectic scene of the fire.

He said he grabbed his 4-month-old son and jumped out a window onto a garage roof. The infant, injured in the jump, was hospitalized Tuesday, “but they say he’s doing fine. We’re lucky.”

“What will we do now?” Andaya asked. “I don’t know.”