Update: Teenage girl, 2 dogs killed in Nipomo house fire
A teenage girl died and two other people were injured in a house fire in Nipomo early Tuesday morning.
Cal Fire was dispatched to the two-story home, located near the intersection of Tefft Street and Calico Court at 1:42 a.m., said Cal Fire spokesman Capt. Adan Orozco.
A 17-year-old died in the blaze, said Tony Cipolla, spokesman for the San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office. Orozco confirmed that the person who died was female.
Two other people escaped through a window, Orozco said.
In addition to Cal Fire, Five Cities Fire Authority and Santa Maria Fire Department responded to the fire.
“The first arriving units were on scene within eight minutes, and when they pulled up, they had a two-story residential structure with fire and smoke coming out of both floors,” Orozco said.
“The house had significant damage to the inside,” he added. “Every room had fire in it and smoke damage. There is partial structural collapse of the second floor.”
The only room in the house that did not burn was the inside of the garage because it was separated by a fire wall, Orozco said.
Two patients were transported to the hospital with injuries, according to a tweet from Cal Fire.
Two dogs also died in the residential fire, Orozco said.
The cause of the fire is still being investigated, but it is not thought to be suspicious or criminal at this point, Orozco said.
Neighbors and firefighters did not recall hearing smoke detectors go off, Orozco said.
“That could be for a couple of reasons. I don’t know if the house had any, and if they did, they can also fail under a certain amount of heat or flame,” Orozco said.
Next-door neighbors tried to help put out Nipomo fire
Neighbors described the fire as a terrifying, late-night ordeal that roused them from their beds in confusion.
David Gomez, who lives next door to the home, woke around 1:30 a.m. Tuesday to the sound of an explosion.
“I heard an explosion, yelling, screaming — I thought there was a car accident in our front yard, here,” Gomez told The Tribune on Tuesday. “I came out and I didn’t see nothing, but I could still hear screaming. So I happened to look towards the top (of the house) and I could see a glow.”
Gomez said the house was already engulfed in flames when he emerged from his home.
He said he then ran back inside, threw some clothes on and jumped over into the neighbor’s yard to try to help.
“I just grabbed a water hose and I started watering down the house but it was really – I mean the flames were just insane,” Gomez said. “That whole house went down in about 20 minutes, I think. It just went through that house pretty quick.”
At one point, he even broke a window to help firefighters get into the building in hopes of saving it, he said.
But in the light of day, it was clear the home was mostly unsalvageable.
As of Tuesday afternoon, the building was a scorched shell of what it previously had been. Burnt pieces of the roof haphazardly jutted into the sky, and black marks spread from windows where mangled screens dangled, attached only by the thinnest scraps of rubber and metal.
Through those windows, the inside of the home appeared almost entirely black, with all but the attached garage appearing to have been irrevocably damaged.
Gomez said he feels bad for the family that lived in the scorched home, noting that they’re now dealing with unspeakable tragedy.
“They are really good people,” he said. “Really nice people. It’s just sad, especially right next door to us. I would never have thought a house next door to us could be on fire and then, just the tragedy. Our family wishes them our condolences.”
This story was originally published November 2, 2021 at 8:55 AM.
