Orange : Family Left Homeless When Fire Guts House

A family was left homeless Sunday when a bedroom fire rendered their house uninhabitable, officials said.

The 1:13 p.m. blaze was contained in a back bedroom of the home in the 400 block of North Lemon Street, said Battalion Chief Pete Pedersen of the Orange Fire Department.

But heat and smoke caused an estimated $40,000 damage throughout the house, Pedersen said.

No one was home when the fire broke out, Pederson said. They returned home after the blaze had been extinguished to find firefighters mopping up debris at the residence they were renting.

A spokeswoman for the Orange County chapter of the American Red Cross said the organization was providing food, clothing and three nights of lodging for the unidentified family, which she said included eight adults and three children.

Fire officials, who brought in a Spanish-speaking interpreter to talk with family members who spoke no English, said, however, that they believed there were only six adults and three children living in the rented three-bedroom house.

Cause of the fire was under investigation, but Pedersen said it originated near a television set in a back bedroom of the home and was contained there. The house was locked and engulfed in smoke and flames at the rear when firefighters, summoned by neighbors, arrived.

A Southern California Edison Co. service line to the house fell across the sidewalk, apparently from the fire’s intense heat, Pedersen said. He said utility workers had to cut power lines around the home.