Traffic backs up on 10th Street as she attempts to flag down
motorists to help
Gilroy – An 87-year-old woman stopped 10th Street traffic for half a block Wednesday afternoon as she flagged down motorists to call for help to save her burning home.
Irma Linda Moreno said she was alone in her bedroom shortly before 3pm when she noticed smoke filling her house at 275 W. 10th St., just a few blocks east of Gilroy High School.
“I don’t know what happened,” Moreno said, standing on the south side of the road with neighbors and school kids as firefighters entered her home. “I was in bed and I started to see smoke from the kitchen. I went to see and the house was on fire.”
The blaze started as after-school traffic picked up along the 10th Street corridor. Fire trucks blocked the road immediately in front of Moreno’s home on the north side of the road, backing up traffic headed for the thoroughfare in all directions. Gilroy High School students streamed along the south side of 10th Street watching smoke billow from the Moreno’s house on the opposite side of the road.
The first of three fire engines and a rescue unit arrived just before 3pm, and firefighters had the blaze under control within a matter of minutes, according to Gilroy Fire Division Chief Ed Bozzo. The response included an engine from South County Fire Protection District. Nearly 20 firefighters responded to the incident.
“They located (the fire) quickly and the flames weren’t that high,” Bozzo said. Firefighters estimated about $300-$400 in damage to contents. A damage estimate for the structure was unavailable at press time.
He added that the fire started because paper and other “combustibles were too close to where (Moreno) was cooking.” It remains unclear if she forgot something on the stove or the fire had some other cause.
Moreno said she lives by herself with three cats. Firefighters rescued two of them using specially designed pet oxygen masks that were donated to the department. A third cat was still unaccounted for at the end of the day.
The woman, who has lived in Gilroy since the early 1940s, said her home is insured and that she plans to stay with her son or friends.
