Efforts at battling a four-alarm blaze Wednesday afternoon in North San Jose were hampered by a city-mandated service cut at the station that serves the area, fire officials said.
One home on the 1200 block of Conifer Lane was gutted, and a second house also caught fire when embers were blown onto its roof, said San Jose fire Capt. Mary Gutierrez. Firefighters arriving at 2:27 p.m. found a "heavily involved" blaze, she said. Second and third alarms were quickly sounded, and a fourth about 3:14 p.m., with mutual aid also summoned.
"It had been burning for a while," Gutierrez said.
She said cost-cutting brownouts meant staffing for a second engine company was not available at the station that serves the Berryessa Creek neighborhood, and the arriving company had to set up its own water supply -- usually a task designated for the second company on the scene, which also brings a second 650-gallon built-in water tank.
"That extra engine has additional water to help get on the structure in a timely fashion," Gutierrez said. "We had one, but we could have had two."
She said one firefighter suffered minor burns and was taken to Valley Care Medical Center.
No one else was injured, but a group of good Samaritans raced into action when they saw the fire start in the home's backyard.
"Me and my grandpa were about to leave, when we saw a gazebo in back burning," said Darien Rico, 18, who lives across the street. "We jumped the fence, turned off the gas, called 911. We kicked in the door, also at the neighbor's house to make sure no one was home."
He said a man who had been sleeping inside the burning house was brought out "by some random guy who was driving down the street and stopped and also helped."
Peter Hua, a reservist in the U.S. Marines, was that random guy. He said he happened to be in the area and, seeing the fire spreading but no first responders on the scene, "I had no choice but to do something myself."
"What I did was, I ran in and it was burning, the kitchen was burning, windows started breaking, and he was confused," said Hua, a 20-year-old San Jose resident. "I was yelling at him to get out. It was unreal looking, but I didn't care, I just know how to help people."
The fire was largely knocked down by 4 p.m., though firefighters remained at the scene searching for hot spots into the evening. The extent of damage to the second home was not immediately known.
Kim Dinh, the homeowner of the burned-out home, has lived there since 2008 with her husband, two daughters, and a relative.
"I was at work when my daughter called -- she had been picked up from school and got to the house to see it was on fire," Dinh said.
She said she doesn't know what they're going to do yet and might seek assistance from the Red Cross for a temporary place to stay but added that the most important thing is nobody was hurt.
She said her daughters, ages 5 and 10 who attend nearby Majestic Way Elementary School, want their security blankets, part of the multitude of possessions that went up in smoke.
"They miss them, they're saying, 'I want my blankie,' " she said. "It's comforting, they really want it back, but I have to say, 'It's gone.' "
Copyright 2012 - San Jose Mercury News, Calif.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
