House Fire Kills Two, Injures One in Santa Maria
By edhat staff
A house fire killed two people and injured one in Santa Maria on Sunday evening.
Santa Barbara County firefighters responded to the 3300 block of Driftwood Drive in the Tanglewood neighborhood near Orcutt at 10:20 p.m.
There was a total of 13 people living inside the home, ten of which were not home at the time of the fire.
Two adult females were pronounced dead at the scene and an adult male was transported to Marian Regional Medical Center for moderate burn injuries.
The Sheriff's Office Coroner’s Bureau released the name of the decedent as 66-year-old Maria Lopez and 56-year-old Alicia Lopez-Buenrostro, both from Santa Maria.
Two Sheriff's Deputies were also transported to the hospital to be treated with smoke inhalation.
"First firefighters saw heavy fire and smoke showing from the residence, and there was a report of two people trapped in the residence, and firefighters pulled a hose line inside the house and began search and rescue operations in the residence looking for the victims," said Santa Barbara County Fire Dept. Captain Josh Cazier. "Santa Maria City Fire assisted Santa Barbara County Fire, we had two engines from Santa Maria City and six engines from Santa Barbara County."
This was considered a "heavy fire load" due to excessive contents within the home and Ii apparently took twenty minutes to knock down the flames, according to County Fire Public Information Officer Mike Eliason.
It's also reported that the home caught fire again around 7:00 a.m. Monday which prompted fire crews to return to the scene.
The cause of the fire is under investigation.
5 Comments
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Dec 30, 2021 10:50 AMThere is a fund-raiser:
https://www.gofundme.com/f/tanglewood-fire
"First of all THANK YOU !!!
These families are overwhelmed with the amount of donations they have received at the moment they are request to not get much more donations due to the limited amount of space they have so going forward they are accepting money donations to go towards funeral expenses even a share can go a long way help us spread the word and help this family lay their Two beloveds to rest."
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Dec 28, 2021 04:57 PMTerrible thing. I always worried about such a possibility when we had a small neighboring house with 17 residents; crammed with possessions and furniture, rooms artificially subdivided, and mickey-mouse wiring everyplace. Thankfully disaster never struck. The question remains, should there be rules capping occupancy at some relatively safe level? Not an easy subject, nor would such be easy to enforce, but there is a lot of potential for this throughout the County, including Goleta and Santa Barbara in view of the housing shortage and high rents.
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Dec 30, 2021 10:51 AMIndeed. Damned if they're housed as well as they can be, and damned if they're not housed.
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Dec 28, 2021 03:02 AMA horror. My condolences to their family and community.
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Dec 27, 2021 02:45 PMVery sad and tragic. I pray they passed peacefully in their sleep.