OXNARD : Family Wonders About Future Home

Nicolasa Hernandez cradled her 1-year-old daughter in the shadow of her burned-out condominium Tuesday morning and wondered out loud where she would live next.

Hernandez, 22, was one of more than a dozen people left homeless when fire swept through a section of a south Oxnard condominium complex Monday. The Red Cross is providing temporary shelter for families burned out of their homes.

“I don’t know when we will be able to move back in,” Hernandez said while waiting outside the split-level, two-bedroom condominium to retrieve items still of use. “I don’t know whether we will ever move back.”

The fire started about 11:30 a.m. Monday by a malfunctioning heater in a second-story unit next to Hernandez’s. The blaze gutted that unit and spread to three other units.

It took 23 Oxnard firefighters an hour to put out the blaze, fire officials said. No one was injured.

Hernandez said she and her husband, Floriberto Zuniga, lived in the condominium with their four children and Floriberto’s parents, Apolinal and Celedonia Zuniga.

A Red Cross spokesman said shelter was found for seven adults and 12 children who lived in the unit. Hernandez said relatives had been visiting her family.

The family of farm workers has lived in Oxnard since 1986 but had only been in the condominium about four months.

Celedonia Zuniga said the blaze has left her family without food, shelter and clothing. Even her husband’s weekly paycheck of more than $100 was lost in the fire.

“We have been left with nothing,” she said. “This will be a struggle for us to live with.”