2 Families Displaced by Fillmore Condo Fire

Investigators on Monday blamed a smoldering patio barbecue for a predawn fire that displaced two families from their condominiums.

The Red Cross was called in to assist the families, who lost almost all their possessions in the blaze.

“I’ve lost everything, all the memories that I had in there,” said Robin Mize, 28, who lived in the 300 block of Arundell Circle with her husband, Steven, 33, and their 9-year-old daughter, Tiffani.

“I just jumped out of bed and grabbed a handful of clothes,” Tiffani said.

Steven Mize was able to save his toolbox and the equipment he recently purchased for his steam-cleaning business.

Fillmore fire investigator Gerald Matthews said the blaze may have started on the Mizes’ deck.

The four-unit building, which was inhabited full time by only two families, will likely be declared a “total loss,” Fillmore Assistant Fire Chief Bob Thompson said.

Robin Mize, who was awakened by Fillmore sheriff’s deputies pounding on the front door, criticized the city’s volunteer Fire Department for not moving quickly enough to save the structure.

But those who put out the 3 a.m. blaze say a 30-foot embankment underneath the deck where the fire started got in the way of an aggressive attack from all sides.

“No water truck in the state, in the United States, could have reached that building from the bottom of that embankment,” said Ventura County Assistant Fire Chief Mark Sanchez, after surveying the smoldering structure on Arundell Circle, near the north end of Central Avenue.

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The County Fire Department assisted the crew from Fillmore, which is the only city in the county with a volunteer firefighting force. The blaze was finally extinguished by noon.

Also displaced by the fire was Liz Medina, 24, along with her husband, Gus, 27, and daughter, Jasmine, 2. The family had lived in the building about seven months before the fire destroyed almost everything they owned.

Medina was especially upset by the loss of a collection of Disney memorabilia that included limited-edition videotapes belonging to Jasmine.

Like the Mize family, Medina, who lived on the first floor, says she could have saved some of her belongings had firefighters moved in faster.

“At first they said it was OK, that we wouldn’t be affected by the fire,” Medina said.

“They seemed to stand around doing more planning than doing,” she said.

Thompson, who is in charge of the Fire Department while Fire Chief Pat Askren is on vacation, said he understands the criticism.

“At one point we had it contained to just one unit,” Thompson said.

The south side of the building, where the barbecue was located, was virtually inaccessible to firefighters because it juts out over a 30-foot embankment. “We could not get to it and attack it aggressively,” Thompson said.

Sanchez, the assistant county fire chief, could find no reason to criticize the work done by the Fillmore department.

In addition to the difficulty posed by the embankment, Sanchez said, the structural damage caused by the fire made it unsafe for firefighters to work from the south side of the building.

“The way that building was collapsing in on itself, I would not want to put a truck at the bottom of the embankment,” Sanchez said.

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The condominiums offer a spectacular view of Fillmore, and Felix Arellano, 26, and Sonia Madrigal, 18, both of Fillmore, were all set to move into the building Thursday.

“We were going to bring some of our stuff over” on Saturday, Madrigal said. They hadn’t packed, so the move was put off.

The only thing they lost, Arellano said, was the view.