Fire Destroys Units in Transitional Calif. Apartment Complex for Homeless

ALAMEDA, Calif. (AP) -- A fire in an apartment complex for recently homeless women and their children went up in flames Friday night.

15 apartments were damaged or destroyed, and more than 20 people are back on the brink of homelessness.

The complex was built two years ago after homeless advocates persuaded the city to turn a motel for servicemen at the Alameda Naval Air Station into 53 housing units. has been only two years since homeless advocates completed all the bureaucratic wrangling and

The cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

Fire officials estimate damages at about 300-thousand dollars.

A firefighter who received a second-degree burn on his neck was treated at a nearby hospital and released.