10 Left Homeless, 2 Hurt in Anaheim Apartment Fire

Ten people were left homeless and two were slightly injured early Wednesday after a fire tore through two apartments, officials said.

Fire officials said they did not know what started the 9:45 a.m. blaze in the apartment complex in the 3400 block of West Del Monte Drive.

The fire apparently started in the bedroom of a first-story apartment and quickly spread to another apartment, said Steve Magliocco, an Anaheim Fire Department division chief.

As flames appeared through windows, two passersby tried to extinguish the fire before firefighters arrived.

Robin Fasy, 18, injured her right hand when she broke glass covering a fire extinguisher in the apartment complex, fire officials said. Paramedics treated her.

Shortly afterward, Jose Hernandez, 21, cut his right hand when he put his fist through a bedroom window and began spraying water into the burning apartment from a garden hose. Hernandez was taken to West Anaheim Medical Center suffering from smoke inhalation.

No one was injured in either of the apartments, fire officials said.

Rosario Chivara, who lived in the apartment where the fire began, told fire investigators he heard popping sounds from the bedroom and saw flames. Chivara, his wife and daughter and a family of seven who lived in an adjacent apartment lost their homes, officials said.

Damage was estimated at about $25,000, Magliocco said.