The Sunnyvale Sun

News

Apartment fire displaces more than 20 residents

By Stephen Baxter

An early morning blaze on Feb. 8 forced 23 residents from the Villa Verdes apartment complex in Sunnyvale.

Reported at 4:29 a.m., the fire at 611 San Luisito Way was doused by 5 a.m., said John Pilger, spokesman for the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety.

A woman escaped the fire by jumping from a second-story window before firefighters arrived. After being alerted to the blaze, resident Desiderio Solice drove his van under one of the apartment's windows so another woman and a baby could step on to its roof to flee. Another man assisted them down to the van's roof.

The woman who jumped from the window went to the hospital for non-life-threatening injuries, authorities said, and the other woman and the baby were taken to a hospital for smoke inhalation.

"We knocked the fire down pretty quickly, about 30 minutes," Pilger said.

The fire was limited to an upstairs apartment, but the water used to fight it made four apartments uninhabitable, Pilger said.

Villa Verdes management was trying to help the displaced residents find temporary housing and the Red Cross was also called to help. It is unclear if smoke alarms sounded during the fire or if any pets were injured.

The early hour of the blaze meant more people were likely to be sleeping there.

"You make sure people are safe, then start an aggressive attack on the fire," Pilger said. "Our firefighters immediately went into rescue mode."