GILROY
– Old electrical wiring behind a clothes dryer was the source of
a fire at an East Sixth Street family’s house on Memorial Day.
GILROY – Old electrical wiring behind a clothes dryer was the source of a fire at an East Sixth Street family’s house on Memorial Day.
Gilroy firefighters had to leave the city’s Memorial Day festivities because of this fire and five other calls Monday: a smoking air conditioner, two vehicle accidents on U.S. 101 and two medical aids.
It was 10:58 a.m. when firefighters left for 367 E. Sixth St., home to a family of 12: eight adults and four children. Some of the house’s residents were in the house when the fire started but escaped unharmed.
“It was a very difficult fire to fight,” acting Division Chief Ed Bozzo said Tuesday. “It was very labor intensive.”
The hardship was largely due to the house’s old walls made of plaster and lathe, Bozzo said. Monday’s hot temperatures didn’t help, either, he added. Two firefighters were treated for heat exhaustion at the scene.
Fire officials estimated the damage at $50,000, Bozzo said.
The family has fire insurance, and on Tuesday an insurance inspector came to take pictures and inspect the damage.
The Red Cross is paying for the family to stay three nights in a hotel, according to Maria Ayala, 23, who lived in the house with her child, parents, siblings and siblings’ children.
“I think the insurance is going to help us get a rental house or an apartment,” Ayala said.
The house is about 90 years old, estimated Ayala’s mother, Maria Godinez, 43. The family lived there a little more than a year.
