Two-Alarm Calif. Mobile Home Blaze Injures Girl
Source San Jose Mercury News (California)
A fast-moving, two-alarm fire at a Redwood City trailer park left a girl suffering smoke inhalation and forced 15 people out of their homes Monday, according to officials and witnesses.
The 12-year-old girl, whose family lives in one of the damaged homes, was taken to the hospital as a precaution after fire broke out at the Le Mar trailer park on East Bayshore Road around 10:50 a.m. Witnesses said the conflagration put off billowing columns of black smoke.
Firefighters from around the Peninsula managed to stop the blaze, which destroyed one trailer home, damaged two others and totaled a Honda, by about 11:45 a.m. said Redwood City deputy Fire Chief Stan Maupin. Officials initially said two homes were damaged and two were destroyed.
Redwood City spokesman Malcolm Smith said three families were displaced by the fire, which caused about $135,000 and appears to have been an accident. There were seven people living in one of the involved trailers, while the other two had four residents each.
Cynthia Guzman, who identified herself as a cousin of the injured 12-year-old, said she was visiting the girl's family when the flames started. They were sitting in the living room when Guzman's aunt, Isabel Guzman, smelled smoke and went toward the bathroom to investigate.
"It's burning. It's burning," said Cynthia Guzman, 26, of her aunt's words after spotting the fire.
The family was escaping when a neighbor appeared at their door with a fire extinguisher and began battling the flames burning in the bathroom. Fire crews then took over the effort to snuff the blaze.
Contact Joshua Melvin at 650-348-4335.
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