Heavy smoke filled a neighborhood in San Diego's Oak Park area Friday when raging flames ripped through an RV, soon spreading to a home.
The RV, which was parked in the driveway of a home on Kalmia Street near Altadena Avenue, caught fire at around 8:35 a.m.
The flames shot into the air and spread to a bit of brush. Thick, black smoke billowed above the RV; aerial footage showed the intensity of the flames as firefighters with the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department (SDFD) surrounded recreational vehicle and home.
Off-duty firefighter Marc Davis was on his way home from work when he saw the flames coming from the home. He stopped to help.
“There was a lot of heavy fire on arrival, so there wasn’t much to do as far as that goes until the companies got here and gave them all a hand-pulling line and they were doing what they could,” Davis explained.
SDFD spokesperson Monica Munoz said that when crews arrived, several people were outside the home, while others were going in and out, scrambling to pull out belongings. Firefighters told them to stay out while they attacked the blaze.
Munoz said the home was filled with belongings that were “stacked up very tightly inside.”
Those items added fuel to the fire and made it difficult for firefighters to access the “seat” of the fire, which Munoz said refers to the severest burning area.
“It was a lot of materials in the yard and whatnot – the crews did an awesome job,” Davis added.
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About 25 minutes later, as the fire continued to spread, the SDFD called for more engines. Just after 9 a.m., the fire had reached the roof of the home, causing part of the roof to collapse. As a safety precaution, fire crews decided to pull out of the house and attack the fire from the outside.
Firefighters used an aerial ladder to douse the flames. By 10 a.m., the fire had been knocked down. Aerial footage showed the scorched RV in the driveway, its roof destroyed.
Munoz said no one was hurt in the fire. About a dozen people had been staying at the home but the SDFD could not elaborate on their living situation.
NBC 7 spoke with family members of the person who owned the home. The homeowner is deceased and the home has been passed down to many people over the years but family members said they have been working to get rid of alleged squatters staying there.
NBC 7 spoke with Deanne Massey, a woman who said she has been staying at the property for more than five years.
Massey was in the living room when she heard an explosion. She then saw flames erupting from the RV, which quickly spread to the house.
"It was crazy, that big, huge orange flame on the side of the motorhome," she recalled. "But nobody ever used it (the motorhome) so it was just used as storage."
Steve Ford also lives there. He said the RV had been parked at the house for three years but it was used for storage and locked up.
Ford and his wife were home when the fire began. They rushed to escape the flames but, in the chaos, couldn’t find their cat, Shredder. The pet was still missing as of Friday afternoon.
The Red Cross was called to the home to help the people living there. Massey said they now have no place to go.
"There's half-a-dozen of us that live there and now we're not going to have a place to live," said Massey.
Ford, who has lived at the property for about 10 years, said he's also left wondering where to go.
The cause of the fire has not yet been determined. Munoz said fire investigators estimate the damage to the RV to be around $5,000 and the damage to the home around $200,000.
