Another person has perished in a house fire - this time it's a 67 year old man. He died when at around 9:00 this morning when he was trapped in a burning house on Gordon Street - which is in the Lake Independence area.
The fire department police rushed to the scene but by the time they got there it was too late. Sahar Vasquez has the story:
Sahar Vasquez reporting
This morning around 10:00, Santiago Gonzalez's lifeless body was taken out of what was left of his place of residence. It has not been confirmed yet what Gonzalez was doing at his home at the exact time of the fire but unfortunately, he did not make it out.
Orin Smith, Station Officer- National Fire Station
"The body did not appear to have any burn damage he may have been overcome by smoke inhalation. However an autopsy would confirm that."
Josue Eliseo, Resident
"He was my neighbor but we did not notice if he come or not because he used to be a security guard and sometimes he was home and sometimes he was not."
The station officer of the National Fire Service told us that by the time they reached the fire was in "freeburn".
Orin Smith, Station Officer- National Fire Service
"Two units were dispatched to that location and on arrival on the scene we found the lower flat of a two story wooden structure fully engulfed in flames."
"The fire was late brought under control and extinguished as the result of the fire the two story wooden structure was destroyed by fire and the southwest section of the adjacent structure in front was damaged by fire."
"At the structure at the rare we had two adults living at the upper flat and we have two adults living in the lower flat and I understand the fire originated from the lower flat and neither of the individuals occupying the lower flat were at the structure at the time."
47-year-old construction worker Martin Lemus's wife owned the house. They rented out one of the apartments on the upper floor to Gonzalez. Lemus and his family lived next to the structure in a separate house.
They lost everything from important documents to cherished memorabilia - and a young boy almost lost his life as well.
Martin Lemus, Resident
"I don't know when it happened because I was out but somebody gave me a call and said my house is on fire and when I came it already burnt down."
"Yes friends lived at the back there. I lived in the front."
"Somebody tells me that lives right at the back that they were conscious of the fire and tried to put out the fire but they couldn't so they said my small son was in my house and somebody went and took him out."
Josue Eliseo, Resident
"Yes we lived at the top and we were watching tv at that moment we smelled smoke so I asked her where the smoke is coming from and we went downstairs and checked. We thought it was the neighbor beside us but then I realized that smoke was coming from downstairs. The man who lived there was not at home at the moment. I saw him coming from the shop so I told him that smoke was coming from his apartment. We tried to break open the door lock and when we managed to get in we tried to out the fire with water and it was already engulfed in flames so the best thing we did was we came out. We could not do anything. We did not have any chance to take out our documents. Our stuff everything was burnt. We stayed with nothing."
And while losing personal documents is one thing - the loss of a life on this day is the only thing that's not replaceable.
The fire department is still investigating the cause of this fire and looking into more information about the Gonzales.
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