Candle may have started San Jose apartment fire

SAN JOSE (KGO) -- High winds are blamed for kicking off a chain of events that led to an apartment fire in San Jose. It started with downed power lines and then a man trying to help actually made matters worse.

Investigators say one of the apartment residents came outside to cut apart a large tree that fell over. He had just lite a candle in his unit and that may have sparked a fire.

This happened around 8:30 Tuesday night on Seven Trees Boulevard in South San Jose. The wind knocked over a large tree - sending it into some power lines. The power lines came down, leaving neighbors with no electricity. One resident of an apartment across the street lit some candles so he could see. Then he came outside to try to clear the debris and cut the tree up. When he went back inside he saw his Christmas tree on fire.

"At the time power was out in the whole neighborhood. He had candles lit in the apartment, he also had a fire in his fireplace, and he had animals running free in the apartment. So it's possible that one of the animals knocked a candle over or something like that, but at this point we don't what the cause of the fire was," said San Jose Fire Department Captain Mitch Matlow.

Residents were evacuated. The man who lived in the burned apartment was taken to the hospital. Three others were treated for smoke inhalation. Since then people have been let back in their apartment and power has been restored.