At 1 a.m. on Oct. 9, a mass of fire fighters descended on a burning house on South College Avenue.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Mike Barneich, a Santa Maria Fire Department battalion chief, confirmed to the Sun in an email that the department is calling the fire suspicious—but wasn’t at liberty to explain why.
One thing to survive the fire was a paper posted next to the front door, which declared the residence to be substandard housing as of June 2014, with a notation that said “No Water.” Access to the house was restricted to retrieval of possessions.
According to Barneich, the building was unoccupied at the time of the fire; they don’t know whether anyone had illegally residing there.
Michelle Tasseff of the city’s code compliance office confirmed that the house had been empty for some time. After receiving a complaint about the house several years ago, it was sealed. Squatters were evicted in June, and the water was turned off to discourage others from taking up residence in the structure.
According to a release from the Santa Maria Fire Department, four engine companies, one aerial truck company, and one battalion chief arrived on the scene, where the house’s garage was engulfed and the flames were reaching for the rest of the house.
Firefighters battled the blaze on two fronts, from inside the house and from the roof using a technique called vertical ventilation. The maneuver involves firefighters cutting a hole in the roof, usually with a chainsaw, to release smoke—which is what typically kills people caught in a burning building. Releasing the smoke also saves firefighter’s lives as, according to Barneich, the ignition of smoke inside a building is what often kills the people sent to put the fire out.
While one unit fought the fire from the roof, others were searching the building and fighting the fire from the inside. According to the release, this coordinated effort resulted in no fatalities or injuries.
This article appears in Oct 16-23, 2014.