Santa Maria police and fire officials are still trying to determine the exact cause of a fatal house fire that killed a 4-year-old boy in the northwest part of the city on Nov. 10.
With bystanders and anguished family members looking on, city fire crews and units from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties responded to a blaze raging in the second story of a home at 812 Marcia Way around 3:15 p.m.
According to fire officials, when crews arrived, Juan Rodriguez and his brother, 5-year-old Jesus Garcia, were trapped inside the burning home. Firefighters rushed through the front door, while others ventilated the roof, containing the blaze to an upstairs bedroom.
Crews found Garcia safely locked in a downstairs bathroom and rushed him to the hospital, but discovered Rodriguez’s body upstairs in the bedroom where the fire started. He was a victim of heat and smoke inhalation.
It took 45 minutes for firefighters to fully contain the blaze, which destroyed the second story of the house—located near the intersection of Alvin and Railroad avenues—and caused more than $150,000 in damages.
Santa Maria police detectives, fire prevention officials, and two representatives from the Department of Justice quickly launched a joint investigation into the cause of the fire, determining it to be accidental.
Rodriguez and Garcia were reportedly in the upstairs bedroom together while their mother was cooking downstairs. According to Santa Maria Fire Battalion Chief Dan Orr, investigators believe one of the boys may have started the fire with an “open flame device” in the upstairs bedroom next to a mattress.
Orr said three families lived in the three-bedroom house; 12 people in all, including eight children. All members of the household who were at home at the time were treated for smoke inhalation
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This article appears in Nov 18-25, 2010.
