San Jose Condo Fire Reaches 3 Alarms; Firefighter, 1 Other Slightly Hurt
SAN JOSE (KPIX 5) -- At least two people, including a firefighter, suffered minor injuries in a three-alarm apartment fire in South San Jose Friday.
The fire was reported just after 2:00 p.m. Friday at 778 Warring Drive, about two blocks south of Blossom Hill Road.
The fire continued to burn for more than an hour. Neither of the injured individuals was seriously hurt, a fire dispatcher said.
Thick plumes of smoke could be seen from throughout south San Jose..
Charro Flotte lives directly across the street from the fire and could not believe how long the four-plex condos continued to burn.
"I came out a little after two and it is a little after three and the flames are still going," said Flotte.
After searching the building and determining everybody was out safely firefighters moved to a defensive fire position.
"It had been burning for some time and by the time crews got here and were working inside we felt that there was some instability of the floor on the second floor and we wanted to move crews outside," said San Jose Fire Capt. Cleo Doss.
The fact that these units had corrugated metal roofs helped prevent the spread of the fire to other nearby homes, but it did make the firefighting effort more complex.
"[It was] very difficult because we cannot properly ventilate from above," said Doss. "We have to do what's called a "cross ventilation" which means we would either have to get guys inside of breach the building from the outside.
