The Vallejo Times Herald
VALLEJO, Calif. — Two women died in a fire that ripped through a South Vallejo home, authorities said Sunday.
At about 2 a.m. Saturday, dispatchers received a 911 call reporting a house at 140 Jordan St. was on fire, police said.
Vallejo police officers managed to reach the scene first, finding the one-story house already engulfed in flames. About a dozen family members who lived in the house had already evacuated and were waiting across the street, police said.
The family members were screaming that two elderly females had been unable to escape and were still inside the house. Officers attempted to enter the house to search for the women, but were repelled by the flames, police said.
Firefighters arrived at the scene moments later and were able to remove one of the trapped women from a back bedroom, officials said. She was transported to a local hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
The other woman, also found in the back bedroom, was pronounced dead at the scene, fire officials said.
A total of 19 fire personnel responded to the two-alarm fire. It took 42 minutes to douse the flames, fire officials said.
The Solano County Coroner’s Office on Sunday identified the two women as Clarenza and Geraldine Burch, but it was not immediately known how they were related or how old they were.
The fire caused extensive damage to the property, which fire officials said was a total loss.
The fire remains under investigation, and nothing has been ruled out in the search for a cause, fire officials said.
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