A fire that broke out Sunday morning at an apartment complex in the Nestor neighborhood of San Diego displaced five adults and seven children just before Christmas, officials said.
More than two dozen firefighters from the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department and the Chula Vista Fire Department responded to the blaze along the 2000 block of Ilex Avenue around 6 a.m.
The fire started on the second floor, and crews were able to get it under control. The apartment was destroyed.
Although the apartments next door sustained minor damage as they were slightly burned by the smoke and flames, there was no gas or electricity, and they were deemed uninhabitable.
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"We can not stay in the apartment for a week," Ricardo Galvan, a neighbor who lives next door to where the fire started, said.
Galvan and his wife woke up to the sound of screams and the smell of thick smoke.
"I just saw a lot of smoke in my apartment, and fire people knocking on my window and at my door. I opened the door and see the fire people there. They told us, 'You have to get out,'" Galvan said.
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His wife was taken to the hospital after inhaling smoke. She is expected to be OK.
Two pets — a dog and a cat — were found dead inside the apartment.
NBC 7 spoke with the man who was staying inside the apartment where the fire started. He did not wish to speak on camera or provide his name. He said he was taking care of the apartment while his daughter and grandchildren were away for the holidays. He said he went to the store for 10 minutes and came back to the sound of glass shattering, quickly followed by flames and smoke.
"It looked like it was very hot, and it was a lot of smoke. Good thing we're a couple apartments down, so we're thankful that we're safe and we'll be OK this Christmas," Adam Verska said. He recorded the incident on his cell phone.
The Red Cross is assisting those who were displaced. The official cause of the fire is still under investigation.
This article originally stated the apartment fire was in Imperial Beach when, really, it was in Nestor. NBC 7 regrets the error.
