Fire traps 2 people in San Jose after suspected domestic dispute
SAN JOSE, Calif. (KGO) -- A fire in an apartment complex in San Jose Wednesday left two people trapped and one person hospitalized for injuries. Firefighters came to the rescue of the trapped residents.
Cellphone video shot by a passerby, Nilda Moran, shows smoke billowing from the second-story apartment building as the first fire engine arrived. Multiple 911 calls had come in, including one from a woman in the apartment next to the fire.
"We have smoke showing from the upstairs unit," said a firefighter in radio traffic from the site Broadcastify. "The next door neighbor is trapped in an upstairs window."
Magdalena Espinoza Guzman told ABC7 News she was prepared to jump from the window with her dog, but firefighters were on scene to rescue her.
"She was trapped so the fire department had to grab a ladder to rescue her and her dog," said Nilda Moran, the passerby who shot cellphone video. "One of the fire department had to give me the dog, so I rescued the dog."
Mrs. Guzman couldn't bear losing her little pug named Tiny. Tiny was initially frightened but managed to calm down.
"She got rally scared and seeing all the smoke and the apartment very dark, and so she was like, 'I'm just going to go to the room and see if someone helps me out,'" said Mrs. Guzman's daughter.
Neighbors report hearing a loud argument coming from the unit where the first started.
"I just heard the female and the male just arguing, arguing," said displaced tenant Jacquelin Seles. "Then I heard an explosion, and then I heard him yelling in pain as if he got burned."
Construction worker Eric Alvarado saw the fire, too, and saw a half-naked man dashing from the apartment building.
"Another guy comes out after the guy," said Alvarado. "Hey, why did you do this, blah blah blah. So he just jumped one of the neighbor's back yard. Disappeared."
The suspect possibly responsible for the fire has been placed on a 72-hour psychiatric hold while investigators continue to determine what happened and why.
