RODEO, Calif. --
An explosion and two-alarm fire ripped apart a vacant apartment in Rodeo early Tuesday, trapping a family of three inside their neighboring unit until they were rescued with the help of a Good Samaritan, authorities said.
The explosion and fire was reported just before 1:30 a.m. in a multi-unit apartment building at 1304 Mariposa St, Rodeo-Hercules Fire Department Battalion Chief Alan Biagi said.
“There were multiple calls reporting a loud explosion,” Biagi told KTVU. “Dispatch also received a call from the occupants of an apartment saying they were trapped.”
The force of the blast was strong enough to collapse a stairway, leaving the windows as the only way to escape for a mother, her sister and son.
Neighbor James Calhoun came to the family’s aide.
“I was on the phone, looking toward this way and I saw the roof just boom -- go up in the air,” he said. “I looked at my mom and said ‘Wait a minute.’ I ended up putting on my shoes and running down here. I stopped and looked and thought – this is like a movie.”
“I saw the daughter at the window – I said ‘How are we going to get these people out?’”
Calhoun and two other neighbors placed a sheet of plywood against the building to allow the family to escape.
“I said you have to jump,” he said. “I pushed up the ply board and I was holding it up. The fire was falling on me. I convinced them to jump and they ended up sliding down sheetrock.”
The family suffered only minor injuries in their harrowing escape.
Biagi said it took firefighters 45 minutes to contain the blaze. He said the source of the fire was suspicious and the blaze remained under investigation.
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