20 Flee as Fire Guts Home in Oxnard

A family of seven and their Thanksgiving Day guests escaped injury Thursday afternoon when a fire gutted their south side home.

“I’m just thankful no one was hurt,” said Kathy Ellison, 35, who lived in the Juniper Street house with her five children and husband, Gregory Holloway. “It could have been a lot worse.”

There were 20 people in the house enjoying a holiday meal when fire broke out in the adjoining garage shortly before 2 p.m., Ellison said.

Fire and plumes of black smoke quickly spread throughout the four-bedroom house, she said.

“I came out of the bathroom, and there was smoke and flames everywhere,” Ellison said. “I started running through all the rooms, calling for the kids. But some of them were already outside.”

Everyone managed to get out, while Ellison’s husband grabbed a hose and tried to douse the flames. But Holloway said there was not enough water pressure to control the fire.

“I almost had it out, but I just couldn’t do it,” said Holloway, watching from across the street as firefighters continued to wet down the inside of the charred house. “Everything is gone--furniture, clothes, everything.”

Holloway said he is uncertain exactly where or how the fire started. He said there was no explosion and that the water heater was in another part of the house.

“I don’t know how it happened,” he said. “I just can’t believe it. It’s hard to believe the house is gone.”

Holloway said he and his family had lived in the rented house for the past five years and liked the quiet neighborhood.

He said his family would probably be staying with relatives in the city until they could make other plans.

“I just hope we can all be together tonight,” he said.

Once on the scene, it took two dozen firefighters only 15 minutes to extinguish the blaze, said Oxnard firefighter Bill Scobey.

No other homes were threatened.

Damage to the house and its contents was estimated at more than $190,000.

The cause of the fire was still under investigation.

A 25-year veteran of the city Fire Department, Scobey said he couldn’t remember ever having a fire on Thanksgiving Day.

“I wouldn’t think there would be a fire in the middle of the day when everybody was eating,” he said. “If there was going to be a fire, you would think it would be in the middle of the night when the turkey is simmering on a pilot light.”

Ellison’s sister, Mary Howard, who had traveled with her family from Arizona the day before to spend Thanksgiving with her relatives, said the house may have been destroyed, but not the family’s holiday spirit.

“I think it’s a blessing,” she said. “This is Thanksgiving Day and no one got hurt. We’re thankful for the lives of the eight children who were in the house. We thank God for that.”