April 17 — As fire burned outside their apartments, about 20 people were trapped on the balconies of a three-story apartment complex in San Jose early Tuesday morning, frantically looking for an escape. The residents tried to climb down using ropes and bed sheets, while neighbors on the ground brought mattresses in an effort to break their fall.
Before anyone needed to jump, San Jose firefighters arrived at the Summer Winds apartments off McLaughlin Avenue and Summerside Drive and rescued the trapped residents with ladders.
San Jose Fire Capt. Mitch Matlow said firefighters used “lots of ground ladders very quickly” to rescue the trapped residents.
“You can only take one person on a ladder at a time,” Matlow said. “So the firefighter and one other person on the ladder. You get them on the ground, then you bring the next person down.”
The blaze, which sparked on a second-story unit, was first reported at 5:33 a.m., according to the fire department. Four people were hospitalized and 11 others were injured and treated at the scene.
The American Red Cross Silicon Valley responded to the scene to help the displaced residents.
Jose Fernandez and Kathy Ruiz were inside their apartment when they heard shouting and realized a fire was burning in an adjacent building in the complex.
“I looked out the window and saw a big black smoke,” Ruiz said. “You could see people on the third floor screaming for help because smoke was already coming out of the building.”
Fernandez said he threw on his shoes and ran outside. He threw a rope to residents, and caught a few personal belongings from one man.
“Everybody was in panic,” Fernandez said. “They were trying to make a decision, ‘Should I jump?’”
Fernandez said another neighbor described his attempt to escape through the front door of his second-floor apartment, only to be met by a wall of flames.
“He smelled it, and the minute he stepped out to the hallway, there was already flames,” Fernandez said. “They had no choice but to go back in their apartment.”
By 7:30 a.m., firefighters from throughout the city had knocked down the blaze. Residents from 36 units were evacuated, and there was no immediate estimated time for when they would be allowed to return.
Sometime after 8 a.m., after a few hours of searching, Ruiz found the man who had thrown him his belongings and returned them.
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