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Nov. 27--A three-alarm fire at an apartment complex in Cupertino on Saturday night destroyed four units and damaged 12 others, displacing up to 50 residents, firefighters said.
The blaze, reported at the Village Green Apartments on Homestead Road at 5:54 p.m., began when a woman who had been cooking french fries forgot about them, said Jeremy Davis, an arson investigator with the Santa Clara County Fire Department.
From 80 to 100 firefighters fought the blaze, including firefighters from San Jose, Sunnyvale and Mountain View. The fire was under control by 7:50 p.m., Davis said.
Firefighters were able to contain the blaze to one building of the complex, which has 122 units.
Of the 16 units in the building, four were destroyed, four damaged by fire and eight others were damaged by smoke or water, he said.
No injuries were reported, but "it doesn't appear that anyone will be able to move back in for quite a while," Davis said.
The gymnasium at nearby Homestead High School will be used as a temporary shelter for those displaced by the fire, the Red Cross said.
"People walked across the football field to the bleachers and watched their apartment complex go up in flames," said Luke Stangel, co-founder of Tackable.com, a photojournalism site that partners with the Mercury News.
About two hours after the Cupertino fire, a two-alarm fire destroyed a home Saturday night in the Magic Sands mobile home park in southeast San Jose.
The San Jose Fire Department received a call about the fire at 8:17 p.m. About 35 firefighters in five engines and three trucks responded to the blaze, and firefighters arrived nine minutes later.
By 9 p.m., firefighters had contained the blaze, said San Jose fire Capt. Rob Brown.
He said a woman who lives alone in the double-wide mobile home had left candles burning in her bedroom and forgot about them. The woman got out of the home uninjured, but her cat is missing, Brown said.
The home is located in a large park near the intersection of Blossom Hill Road and Monterey Highway. Firefighters contained the fire to the one home.
Contact Troy Wolverton at 408-840-4285. Follow him at Twitter.com/troywolv.
