THOUSAND OAKS : Fire Guts House, Displacing Family

Fire gutted a Thousand Oaks home Wednesday evening less than a month after the new owners closed escrow.

Although the Pagett family hadn’t moved many belongings into their new Twin Oaks Court house, damage to the structure was extensive.

The blaze, which took two hours to contain and created enough smoke to fill the night sky, displaced the family just 10 days before Christmas.

Fire officials said a blowtorch that had been used earlier in the day to install a water filtration system sparked the blaze.

After the fire had smoldered for hours inside the wall between the one-story home’s garage and front walkway, Jo Pagett began smelling smoke. When she walked around the house to investigate, she saw flames shooting from a hole in the wall.

“She came running over to my house and asked me to call the Fire Department,” neighbor Helene Bialis said. “They didn’t even have a phone installed yet.”

Firefighters said they had trouble containing the stubborn blaze because smoldering embers hid within foam inside the house’s attic. By the time fire crews knocked the flames down, the damage from both fire and water was extensive.

“It looks really bad,” Bialis said. “It’s obviously a tremendous amount of damage.”

Fire officials estimate that the house sustained $115,000 in structural damage and another $3,000 in lost possessions.

Among the few belongings the Pagetts had moved into the house before Wednesday’s fire were this year’s Christmas presents.

The Pagetts’ daughter Kori, 24, said she believed the gifts were spared by the flames, but may have been destroyed by water damage.

Jo and Patrick Pagett, who just sold their North Ranch home of 17 years, said they would spend the holidays with their daughter Quinn, 26, of Malibu.