Members of the Sanchez family were trying to piece together what
they could after a three-alarm fire destroyed a home, a barn and
several horse trailers and out buildings on their 10-acre
ranch.
Morgan Hill
Members of the Sanchez family were trying to piece together what they could after a three-alarm fire destroyed a home, a barn and several horse trailers and out buildings on their 10-acre ranch.
“We’re starting to pull what we can salvage, and what we can recycle,” said Erica Sanchez Monday morning, two days after the blaze sent plumes of black smoke in the air above north Morgan Hill. “Everybody (in the Sanchez family) wishes we could go back one day and do something different. It’s horrifying. You want to wake up and wish it wasn’t there.”
Five agencies responded to the fire at 514 Dougherty Ave., with the first crew arriving about 4:30 p.m. Saturday. About 30 pieces of equipment were deployed to fight the blaze and keep it from spreading to a nearby lumber yard, according to Cal Fire Operations Chief Mike Marcucci.
A spooked white horse ran from the south to the north end of the former farm, as chickens scattered, clucking, frantic from the sound of the Cal Fire helicopter flying overhead, dumping load after load of water, 300 gallons each, trying to calm the flames.
Erica Sanchez listed the items and structures lost to the flames which claimed a total of nine structures, including her uncle’s house, a 100-year-old barn constructed of redwood, a trailer, and several smaller storage sheds.
“Seven or eight vehicles,” including a Harley-Davidson motorcycle and a Corvette, were destroyed.
“My mom lost her ducks and chickens,” Sanchez said. “We’ve been here for generations, so we had a lot of old farming stuff. My uncle lost all his tools and his work shop.”
She noted the biggest loss was her uncle’s home. “He’s trying to settle in the trailer in the back (of the property),” she said.
Even though no one was injured in the fire, the destruction it caused was “heartbreaking,” Sanchez said.
“We’re starting from ground zero now,” she added.
Erica Sanchez was one of 10 adult family members who live in the five (formerly six) houses on the property. In her home she lives with her four children, the youngest of whom is 15 months and the oldest 8. Her children were not home at the time of the blaze, and she said they are having difficulty understanding what happened.
“I’m thankful we’re all alive. I can’t sleep at night, thinking it could have been worse,” Sanchez said.
The barn went up in flames quickly, and Marcucci said when the first crews arrived it was “fully involved.”
At least 80 firefighters battled the flames, braving popping ammunition, propane tanks and car tires amid the veritable junk yard. A power line was down, too, prompting Cal Fire to rope off the area with black-and-yellow tape, forbidding even firefighters from entering the zone.
Marcucci said the worst case scenario would have been winds pushing the fire east to the neighboring lumber yard, fueling the fire further, and the subdivisions to the south.
“We were fortunate enough to have a mowed field,” Marcucci said of the south side of the property. “It’s always a struggle to get fire engines here as fast as we can.”
As of 6 p.m., Marcucci estimated that the responding engines from Cal Fire, Santa Clara County Fire Department, San Jose and Gilroy fire departments and County Fire had used 12,000 gallons of water fighting the blaze. The typical house fire uses about 2,000 gallons, he said.
The Sanchez family of five siblings was in hysterics, pointing fingers of blame and naming the belongings that were lost in the fire that took down the 2,000-square-foot barn.
“My pigs, my goats!” Erica Sanchez cried at the scene between sobs.
“My Harley, my Corvette, antiques, songbooks,” her uncle Mario Sanchez said. Mario Sanchez’s home was destroyed in the blaze.
“No insurance, no insurance, oh my god … ” Ruben Sanchez exclaimed.
By about 7:30 p.m., the scene had calmed. There were few hot spots left, and the Sanchezes and firefighters corralled four goats and four pigs to a less smoky section of the property.
Mario Sanchez said he was in a storage room next to the barn when he heard popping sounds. When he exited the storage room, the barn was already fully engulfed. He wore no shirt, and was missing a shoe, as he listed the items lost.
The cause of the fire was unknown, but Ruben and Erica Sanchez suspected that a lit cigarette butt was tossed carelessly on the ground inside the barn or near it. Marcucci said the cause of the blaze is under investigation. Cal Fire officials did not respond to phone calls seeking an update on the investigation by press time Monday.
Ruben Sanchez said his family has owned the land for more than 30 years. He listed even more details about the losses in the fire, whose inventory of destruction may not be fully determined for a long time. He estimated that thousands of dollars worth of tools were in the barn, as was his 1968 Pontiac Firebird.
Erica Sanchez said Monday she was thankful to the family’s friends and neighbors who have helped them clean up the property and offered support since Saturday.
“You can really tell who your friends are when you have a crisis,” she said.
