Two San Jose Firefighters Injured Battling Triplex Blaze

A pair of firefighters was hurt battling a two-alarm house fire that badly damaged a triplex in the northeast section of San Jose on Tuesday afternoon.

It took crews of about 60 firefighters roughly an hour to put out the fire, which ignited at a house on the 1700 block of Commodore Drive at 3:10 p.m., Capt. Mary Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez called the damage "extensive" and said crews had to put out fires on all three levels of the home. The attic was the most difficult to extinguish, as crews on ladders had to pump 2,000 gallons of water a minute to slow down the flames. After a half-hour, the firefighters escaped from the top floor before the roof collapsed.

One firefighter was treated on scene while a second was taken to the hospital by ambulance with unknown injuries, Gutierrez said. None of the four people living at the 3,000-square-foot house were home at the time the blaze sparked.

The cause of the fire was unclear, though there was no reason to believe it was suspicious, officials said. The owner of the home had left about an hour before the fire started and did not know what caused it.

Copyright 2012 - San Jose Mercury News, Calif.

McClatchy-Tribune News Service