The Contra Costa Times
CONCORD, Calif. — A Cal Fire battalion chief lost his home in a one-alarm fire early Wednesday morning, just hours after another fire had gutted one of the home’s bedrooms.
The one-story home in the 2100 blocks of Fredricks Street, across from John Muir Medical Center near downtown, began burning just before 3 a.m. and appears to have been caused by smoldering material similar to recyclable paper that was inside the walls near the attic, Contra Costa Fire Protection District Fire Marshal Robert Marshall said.
“Unfortunately, the home is a total loss,” Marshall said. “It’s not something that you see very often. Obviously, the family is devastated.”
The same home burned Tuesday morning, but crews were able to contain the damage to one of the bedrooms and contents inside it. Fire crews remained for hours after that blaze was controlled, working to put out hot spots. Save for some smoke damage, the rest of the house remained intact and would have been livable again.
“Unfortunately, this was in an area that we weren’t able to get to or to check, because it’s behind a wall and that area of the house was OK,” Marshall said. “But this material was inside it, and some of it was smoldering undetected and ignited. This is the unfortunate result of that. These things don’t happen very much, but they do happen.”
The family of four was staying with relatives Tuesday night and not at home when the fire began. Flames were high enough that the first reports of it came from motorists on Highway 242, Marshall said.
Fire crews fought the fire mostly from the outside but were able to get in the home eventually, Marshall said. The fire was not declared under control until just before 4:30 a.m.
“You have to feel for the family,” Marshall said. “It’s really a devastating turn of events.”
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