A home at 1884 Joseph Drive in The Bluffs caught fire and burned Tuesday, prompting a call for a second alarm as a neighboring home was also threatened by wind-whipped flame.
The home’s four residents evacuated the home and called for help at 10:07 p.m. with the first firefighters on the scene promptly asking for a second alarm as heavy smoke and flame enveloped the first floor of the two-story home and quickly spread throughout.
Fire Chief Stephen Healy said the cause of the blaze is still under investigation but that the two-story structure was a total loss with damage estimated at between $600,000 and $1 million. A neighbor’s home was also damaged, with firefighters arriving to see flames from the original blaze penetrating the second structure.
Healy said the fire appears to have gotten a start in the garage of the home, and was made even more difficult to fight when stored propane bottles started cooking off.
The fire, also whipped up by gusting winds sweeping through The Bluffs periodically last night, was reported out shortly before 11 p.m., with firefighters conducting salvage and mop up operations to prevent flare ups into the next morning.
One firefighter was taken to John Muir Hospital in Walnut Creek with unspecified but “moderate” injuries suffered while fighting the blaze. He was treated and released. The family has been taken in by neighbors.
The large volume of smoke produced by the fire was carried east by offshore winds, prompting concerned calls from throughout central county for some time after the blaze was put down.
Awful but we are glad the family made it out safely.
I can’t even imagine what I would do in that situation. So glad everyone is safe and the firefighter too. Such a scary thing to have happen.