Fire Leaves Lives in Ruins : Overcrowding Issue Resurfaces in Fatal Blaze’s Aftermath

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

A woman and two children who shared the house with Andaya and three other families died in the explosive blaze Monday night. Five others were injured.

Officials Tuesday identified the dead as Jesus Castaneda, 5; Melissa Sanchez, 2, and Melissa’s mother, Azusena Sanchez, whom witnesses said may have re-entered the home to try to save her daughter.

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

“Overcrowding was an issue because of the amount of people living here,” Ellman said. “The number of deaths wouldn’t have been as high.”

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

City officials said that while the number of residents in the house did not exceed legal limits, the city has experienced numerous fires in which residents lost their homes and sometimes their lives 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.

Richardson said he drove to the fire scene late Monday night to inspect the damage. He said that neighbors told him they suspected that a large number of people lived at the home but that none had complained to the city’s building inspectors.

“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.”

Richardson said the Fire Department recently prepared a report that found that since December, 1991, fires in only four homes displaced 70 people and killed nine more--an average of 20 people per home.

The issue is controversial and may have no quick solution. Advocates for the poor have fought attempts to control the number of occupants in each unit because they cannot afford the high rents found in Orange County.

A recent comparison of rents found that rents in Santa Ana are higher than in surrounding cities because owners expect more than one family to share the units, Housing Manager Patricia Whitaker said.

“Rents should reflect the income of tenants who choose to live here,” Whitaker said. “But it became pretty obvious that our rents are pretty high here in comparison to the income of the tenants. It’s artificial discrimination against the tenants who live here.”

On Tuesday, Andaya, his wife and her mother, picked through the rubble of what used to be their home. Most of their belongings had been destroyed.

He recalled people yelling to get out, people running to the second floor to escape the flames.

Andaya, 25, said he grabbed his 4-month-old son and jumped out a window to an adjacent garage roof. The infant, injured in the jump, was hospitalized Tuesday, “but they say he’s doing fine. We’re lucky.”

Most of the other injured were expected to be released from hospitals by today.

Fire investigators said someone was cooking in the kitchen when the fire began, but they would give no details. Damage to the home was estimated at $200,000, Ellman said.

Andaya said that his wife is unemployed and that he works part time as a cashier and cook at a Taco Bell.

“What will we do now?” he said. “I don’t know.”

On Tuesday, several of the injured remained at UCI Medical Center in Orange. Rosie Sanchez, who had escaped by jumping out a second-floor window, was in guarded condition in intensive care.

Marisela Fierro’s main task Tuesday was finding a friend to drive her to a Santa Ana mortuary to arrange services for her 5-year-old-son, Jesus.

Fierro had moved in over the New Year weekend to escape an unhappy home, a friend said.