An alert downstairs renter may have saved the life of a sleeping upstairs neighbor when a fire burned a duplex in the 1300 block of C Street in Napa early Sunday morning.
"She was a lifesaver, definitely," said Kathy Gunn, the homeowner. The fire consumed the personal property of two rental units and blackened the inside of the duplex.
A shocked Gunn surveyed the scene of the fire on Sunday afternoon. The fire hit just after midnight, just before her son, Oliver Gunn, and a female companion came to the residence, she said.
The woman, whose name was unavailable, ran upstairs and awoke a sleeping neighbor, whose name was also unavailable.
The fire blackened the inside of the residence and destroyed the property inside. All the occupants of the two units escaped unharmed and the downstairs tenants even managed to rescue a half dozen bearded lizards that lived in a cage near the front door, Gunn said. Two other lizards perished in the fire, according to reports from the scene. One firefighter suffered a second-degree burn to the left side of his face. Battalion Chief Mike Randolph said the firefighter's injuries were minor and that he would not have to miss work as a result.
The Napa Fire Department was called at 12:25 a.m Sunday and arrived four minutes later. Heavy smoke and fire were coming from the house when the fire department arrived, a press release stated.
Firefighters dissuaded the occupants from returning into the burning home to rescue a fishtank.
It took until 12:42 p.m. to contain the fire and until 2:12 a.m to put it out.
Fifteen hours after the fire at 3 p.m. Sunday, a mattress was smoldering in the front yard. Firefighters returned to the scene and sprayed water on the mattress, after being contacted by photographer Robert Peebles.
The Napa Fire Department estimated the loss at $150,000 to the structure and $75,000 to the contents of the home.
A black-and-white cat resident of the house, named Cuddy, has been missing since the fire, said landlady Kathy Gunn.
"We hope the cat wasn't inside."
