Child dead, 8 injured in Escondido fire

A 5-year-old girl died and eight other family members were injured in an early morning fire that ripped through their Escondido mobile home Thursday.

The girl’s 11-year-old uncle was rescued from the flaming house and hospitalized in critical condition, authorities said. Paramedics started CPR on the boy as he left in an ambulance.

“People were coming out of the windows in bare feet and in their pajamas and smelling like burned plastic,” said neighbor Cristina Zazueta. “It was awful, just awful.”

The blaze may have been sparked by an electrical cord leading to a Christmas tree or a candle, but investigators won’t be able to determine the cause because of the extent of the damage, fire Chief Russ Knowles said. The home was completely destroyed.

The fire was reported about 12:30 a.m. at Greencrest Mobilehome Park on West 15th Avenue and Hill Street.

Some family members got away from the fast-moving flames while others were trapped inside. Several neighbors said they heard screams and the sound of breaking windows, then saw flames at the front of the home.

Zazueta, who lives in a house next to the mobile home park and less than 50 feet from where the fire raged, said 10 people spanning three generations had lived in the home for several years.

She said it was after midnight when she went outside intending to scold the residents for making too much noise. She thought they’d just returned from a party.

“In reality it was the sister screaming “Get them out! Get them out,” she said.

Zazueta called 911. She said her friend Sandra, the 25-year-old mother of the girl who died, was screaming “Cristina my baby and my brother are still in the house.”

“I asked her where the baby was and she said she had no idea. I asked where her brother was and she said it was too dark to see.”

At that point Sandra’s father came out of the house. “There was smoke puffing off his body,” Zazueta said.

The house kept “bursting” with popping noises, she said. Several family members wanted to go back inside, but she held them back fearing for their safety and eventually brought seven of them to her home.

“It just kept popping and I was nervous that there would be some bigger gas burst. You could feel heat popping out of the house. Everybody was standing so close so I kept grabbing them to keep them away.”

She said moments later the house “lit up and fire was coming from every window. I didn’t know what to do. All I could do was retreat them away from the house as best I could. Soon after that the police came.”

Flames were roaring out a front window, near where the Christmas tree was, when firefighters got there. Knowles said firefighters started dousing the flames from the front while other crews went to the back, broke a window, and started rescuing people.

“It was a chaotic scene,” he said. “These are the most horrific scenes that any first responder has to go through.”

Eight children and adults were taken to hospitals with what Knowles said were mostly mild injuries. He said the boy was found near the back of the house, and the child who died was at the front.

Firefighters got the two-alarm blaze knocked down quickly, before flames could spread to any neighboring homes, Knowles said.

Zazueta said the family, made up of six children and four adults, “is so sweet…a sweet, kind family really blessed to be around. They were always quiet. We never had any issue with them.”

She said she wishes there was more she could have done.

“I can’t imagine what they’re going through,” she said. “They need to know they are loved by many, many people.

“I really wish I could have done more for them.’

A gofundme account has been set up for the family, by a friend who said the family lost everything in the fire.