Photograph by Jeff Kearns
Mop Up: Fire crews douse hot spots in the garage of a house on Creek Drive that burned on March 20. The fire started in the garage, but the cause is unknown.
Blaze guts home on Creek Drive, but mother and son escape safely
Damage is estimated at about $280,000
By Jeff Kearns
A woman and her son escaped to safety when their home caught fire last week, but the blaze gutted most of the family's single-story home.
Pamela Lasich and her son Max thought they smelled smoke just after 3:30 p.m. on March 20, and when they looked around their home at 1869 Creek Drive, they discovered that the garage of the home was engulfed in flame.
They alerted neighbors, who called 911, but by the time fire crews arrived on the scene minutes later, the structure was fully involved.
It took 26 firefighters about 20 minutes to control the blaze, which caused an estimated $280,000 in damage to the house and a car that was parked in the driveway.
San Jose Fire Capt. Mark Mooney said the cause of the single-alarm blaze wasn't immediately known, but that it may have been caused by a match that was accidentally dropped in the garage. Mooney said the fire escalated rapidly after it started in the garage and may have been accelerated by some aerosol cans that exploded.
David Lasich, who arrived home from work a short time later, said his family will live temporarily with friends in the area.
"It's a total loss," he said. "It's really heartbreaking. We've lost everything."
Max Lasich, 10, said he was in the living room when he smelled a sweet smell that he thought might have been incense, but when he got closer to the garage he smelled a strong odor of smoke. He said he and his mom felt the door of the garage and realized that there was a fire, then quickly ran out. They alerted neighbors about the blaze because the phones in the house had gone out. Fire dispatchers received five calls about the blaze.
The cause is considered accidental, and the fire department will not conduct any further investigations, Mooney said.
"It doesn't matter how it started because we don't suspect anything suspicious," he said. "There are a lot of other fires that are suspicious."
Mooney said if someone had been injured or died in the blaze, the department would have done a complete investigation.
Mooney said that Pamela Lasich gave fire officials a statement that the only reason she could think of as a possible cause was a match she lit that she didn't think ignited, when she was in the garage, and that the match may have fallen into a pile of laundry.
At the time of the blaze, it appeared that some household items may have been salvageable, but there was serious structural damage to the home itself.
Mooney said the Lasich's insurance would cover the damage costs. The value of the approximately 1,500-square-feet house was estimated at $250,000 and the car's value was estimated at $30,000.
The best way to safeguard against is fires is "good housekeeping"--keeping objects away from water heaters, trimming outdoor foliage, making sure smoke detectors work and having a small fire extinguisher in the house, Mooney said.
"As the public start to see what a fire really does," he said, "they start to see what they have to do to be safe."
Staff Writer Kate Carter contributed to this report.
Willow Glen, California Since 1992
