Three people saved from early-morning fire
Gilroy – The dog was restless – whining and pacing. Scott Schipper’s golden retriever, Meg, woke him from a sound sleep in the wee hours Thursday morning. Drowsy-eyed, Schipper opened the door to let Meg out. But Meg wouldn’t go.
Then Schipper heard the sound, like a murmur of voices, and saw the curious brightness of the yard. Next door, his neighbor’s house was ablaze. Schipper gasped and called 911. The time was 1:45am.
The two-story home at 9115 Crest Hill Court was filled with fire pulsing from the garage and shattering the windows.
“Richard! Richard!” Schipper yelled, banging on the door and ringing the doorbell. Upstairs, Richard and Patti Perino and Patti’s mother, Viola Kersgaard, were sound asleep, oblivious to the flames below. Roused by Schipper’s shouts, they stumbled downstairs. If they’d waited a few minutes later, firefighters later told them, it would have been too late.
“I couldn’t believe how quickly it happened,” said neighbor Gloria Ruiz, one of the first to step outside that night. “That dog is a hero today.”
Engines from Gilroy, Hollister, San Jose, County Fire and the South Santa Clara County Fire District sped to the house, and staffed city fire stations for Gilroy firefighters busy combating the flames. The three-alarm fire apparently started near the garage. Investigators are still studying the cause of the fire, said Gilroy Fire Chief Dale Foster.
Thursday, a red ‘Unsafe’ sign was planted next to the door, as workers covered the sagging roof with an off-white tarp. Richard Perino and his son carried coolers full of frozen food from the house, retrieving what they could from the scorched and sooty first floor.
“Thank goodness,” said Richard Perino, “for that dog.”
Emily Alpert covers public safety issues for The Dispatch. She can be reached at 847-7158, or at ea*****@************ch.com.
