SAN DIEGO – Firefighters extinguishing a blaze that destroyed a heavily cluttered Mission Hills home Tuesday found the bodies of two people inside the gutted structure. Neighbors say a mother and adult daughter lived at the residence.
“The mom was stuck in bed, the daughter didn’t want any help, but she needed help because she could barely walk herself,” said next-door neighbor Nancy Fontana.
The blaze broke out just after 5 a.m. in the 1700 block of Fort Stockton Drive. Neighbors say an elderly woman who was bedridden lived in the house with her daughter.
Cell phone video captures flames ripping through Mission Hills home. @fox5sandiego pic.twitter.com/RYcdRfY4pZ
— Aric Richards (@AricFOX5) April 4, 2017
Hoarding conditions inside the home made it difficult for firefighters to battle the blaze, which also threatened to damage the home next door, officials said.
“There is a tremendous amount of furniture and semi-hoarding conditions that are keeping them from searching,” fire officials said.
Dozens of firefighters remained on the scene until noon putting out hot spots and searching for the cause of the blaze.
“They were not exactly cozy people but man nobody deserves to go out like this and when I imagine the horror of it I just hope they were unconscious because it was terrible,” said Fontana.
Home slowly but surely getting boarded up after it caught fire in Mission Hills. Hear from next door neighbors on @fox5sandiego at 4 pic.twitter.com/CoqWBw6xUl
— Felicia Martinez (@FeliciaKSL) April 4, 2017
The estimated monetary losses were set at $250,000 to the structure and $20,000 to contents.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation in the early afternoon.