Family of 4 Displaced by Electrical Fire

An electrical fire Friday morning displaced a financially strapped South Oxnard family from its modest Iris Street home.

The 7 a.m. fire caused about $1,500 worth of damage to the two-bedroom house in the 100 block of West Iris Street, but it could have had more tragic consequences, said Capt. Kevin Schroepfer of the Oxnard Fire Department.

Homeowner Froilan Reyes was awakened by the sound of the fire smoldering in a wall between two closets, but he initially dismissed it as rats in the attic.

When the noise persisted, he discovered the fire in the wall between his bedroom and the adjacent one occupied by his two daughters, who are 9 and 5. Reyes turned off the electricity and evacuated his children, Schroepfer said.

“The fire could have been a lot worse had the guy not been able to discover it,” Schroepfer said. He said there was no battery in the home’s smoke detector.

Although damage to the house was minimal, it is temporarily without electricity, so the Red Cross is providing lodging in a local motel for the family. Reyes said his wife was at her welding job at the time of the fire.

Although insurance is expected to cover the cost of repairs, the family was facing a bleak Christmas even before the fire, said Fire Chaplain Daniel Green, who was also assisting the family.

Reyes was laid off from his job as a heavy equipment operator at local farms because of the recent rains, and the family had put the home up for sale before getting too far behind on mortgage payments.

“He said he hasn’t gone out to get a tree because of finances,” Green said, adding that he intends to find a Christmas tree for the family and some toys for the kids.

Though apparently not holiday related, the fire served as a reminder of the dangers of the season. Frayed wires on Christmas lights, flammable trees, candles left unattended and space heaters placed too close to bedding increase the possibility of home fires during the holidays.

“This is the heightened fire season for Oxnard,” Green said.