Families Flee Burning Apartments

Three families escaped from their burning Saticoy apartment building after being awakened by a passing motorist early Monday.

The blaze started about 4:30 a.m. in a storage building near the three-unit complex in the 1200 block of Los Angeles Avenue, said Joe Luna, spokesman for the Ventura County Fire Department.

Bill Randall of Carpinteria was driving to work when he noticed a trail of smoke off California 126 about 4:30 and decided to take a closer look. Randall turned onto Los Angeles Avenue and saw a flicker of flame at the back of the building.

He immediately started pounding on the doors to alert the residents.

“They were all still asleep; they had no clue,” Randall said. “I was on the cell phone to the Fire Department while I was banging on the door. There’s a pretty good chance they could have been killed.”

Several hours after firefighters extinguished the blaze, investigators were still sifting through the charred rubble looking for clues about what sparked the fire.

“We’re still trying to find the point of origin on the fire,” Luna said. “But it didn’t take much to get this building to burn.”

The fire smoldered in the building’s storage unit, which contained gas and paint cans as well as lawn equipment, before spreading into the pre-World War II-era wooden structure, Luna said.

Damage to the 1,600-square-foot building, which at one time served as a medical and dental clinic, is expected to run about $200,000, Luna said. Damage to the contents was estimated at $50,000, he said.

Residents, several of whom work on nearby farms and speak little English, spent Monday morning sorting through what was left of their belongings while beginning the task of finding a new place to live.

Several neighbors who were awakened by the smoke and flames used hoses and buckets of water on the fire until firefighters arrived.

Firefighters worked slowly even as the fire continued to grow, witnesses said.

“They weren’t attacking the fire,” said Brandon Cheeks, who lives behind the complex and was among the first on the scene. “The fire wasn’t burning. When they did attack it, they put it out.”

Luna said what may have appeared to be a slow response was actually textbook firefighting. He said firefighters had to wait for backup crews before entering the structure.

Firefighters also had to make sure gas and electrical lines were shut off, Luna said.

“The public is not aware of the guidelines that are in place to protect firefighters.”

Along with his wife, Veronica, who is seven months pregnant, Jose Gonzales barely got out before the fire tore through the couple’s unit. Nearly $700 in cash kept in the apartment--his entire family savings--was lost.

“I can get new material things,” said Gonzales, who works as an installer at a local air-conditioning company. “But you can’t replace life.”

Like the other two families forced from their homes, Gonzales and his wife will spend the next three nights at a Ventura motel.

The Red Cross will pay the bill, as well as provide vouchers for clothing and three days worth of food.