Mother Killed, Family Critically Hurt In San Jose Apartment Fire
SAN JOSE (CBS 5) - A father and his 6-year-old son are in critical condition after a three-alarm apartment fire in San Jose early Tuesday morning killed the son's mother and sent five others to the hospital, fire officials said.
The fire at the fourplex apartment building at 2291 Warfield Way was reported at 2:47 a.m. The blaze was upgraded to a three-alarm fire at 3:06 a.m. and was knocked down by firefighters by 3:42 a.m., fire officials said.
Responding firefighters were met by neighbors shouting that there were people inside and they immediately went into rescue mode, fire Capt. Mary Gutierrez said.
KCBS' Matt Bigler Reports:
The firefighters entered the building to look for victims and encountered heavy smoke, fire and heat, Gutierrez said.
Seven family members lived together in the unit, including a mother, father, a 6-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy, their aunt, uncle and grandfather, Gutierrez said.
Firefighters found the 6-year-old boy and his mother on the bed. The father had managed to break the bedroom window and escape to the roof, Gutierrez said.
Firefighters rescued the boy and used a ladder to bring the mother and father down from the second level, Gutierrez said.
The 12-year-old boy and the other members of the family all escaped the blaze and are reportedly in stable condition, Gutierrez said.
The fire appears to have originated from the garage of the building, directly under the area where the family slept, Gutierrez said.
Firefighters also went into an apartment unit adjacent to the one where the fire originated and helped two people who were still asleep and in danger of being affected by the blaze.
Gutierrez said 13 people were displaced by the blaze.
This was the city's first fire fatality in about a year, according to Gutierrez.
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