'Like a bomb:' Three homes damaged after house fire spreads west of downtown Redding
Three homes suffered "substantial damage" after a fire that broke out at one of the houses quickly spread to two other nearby homes in downtown Redding on Wednesday morning.
The fires forced the eight people living in the three homes to seek shelter as far away as Oregon, residents said.
"Due to the proximity, the houses being so close together, they caught on fire pretty quickly," said Ron Krznarich, a Redding Fire Department investigator.
Fire department investigators were still looking into the cause of the fire Wednesday, which broke out shortly before 9 a.m., Krznarich said.
The fire appeared to have started at 1779 Willis St. and then to a house behind it, which faced Grace Street, and then to a house at 1763 Willis St., just to the north of the house where the original fire started, Krznarich said.
The fire did an estimated $400,000 damage to the three residences and another $100,000 to the contents of the homes, fire officials said.
Tiana Rodriguez, who lives on Willis Street next door to the house where the fire started, said she was shaken up by the blaze.
All of the people at the three homes that caught fire were able to escape, but Krznarich said one person had minor injuries due to the fire. There were two people at the home at 1779 Willis St. when the fire broke out. Both residents escaped.
"We woke up around 9 to a loud pop that sounded like a bomb. And when we woke up the entire room was orange. And I looked down and my curtains were on fire. So I tried to open the window real quick, and noticed that my next door neighbor's house was completely on fire," Rodriguez said.
"So I grabbed my 2-year-old son and my mom, and we rushed outside, and I had to go back inside for a diaper for him and clothes for me. And I came back outside and we tried to put the hose on the back of the house, and it didn't work. And then that's when the fire truck showed up," she said.
Rodriguez's mother tightly clutched a green cloth sack as she slowly crossed the street in front of her fire-damaged home. The sack contained Rodriguez's father's ashes, which firefighters were able to save and bring to her, Tiana Rodriguez said.
The fires were under control within an hour, officials said. All Redding fire engines were called to the blazes, as well as crews from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection.
A total of 47 firefighters were at the scene, with 13 fire engines. Firefighters worked on mopping up the homes for five hours Wednesday, officials said.
This article originally appeared on Redding Record Searchlight: 'Like a bomb:' Fire west of downtown Redding damages three homes
