Apartment Building Blaze Leaves 4 Families Homeless

Two fires at an apartment building left four families homeless, damaged four units and caused about $120,000 in damage, authorities said.

Seven fire engines responded about 7:50 a.m. and extinguished the fire within two hours at the building in the 12400 block of Haster Street.

The cause is still under investigation. But on Friday, firefighters extinguished a bedroom fire in the very same unit where Saturday’s fire started, Battalion Chief Cameron Phillips said.

No one was home in the unit at the time, he said.

“Our guys did an aggressive job and got quite a bit saved,” Phillips said of Saturday’s fire. “Additionally, we went back an hour or so later, brought in the tenants individually and helped them gather any of their personal items we could pull out for them.”

The Red Cross was called to the scene and found motel rooms for the four families, which spokesman Doug Gavilanes said encompassed nine adults and nine children. Two of the families were displaced by Friday’s fire, he said, and the other two families by Saturday morning’s blaze.