By KATHE TANNER
The Tribune (San Luis Obispo, Calif.)
CAMBRIA, Calif. -- A wayward fireplace log may have caused a fire that killed a yet-to-be identified man in a two-story Cambria home early Monday.
His body won’t be positively identified before Thursday, according to Steve Crawford of the county Coroner’s Office.
He said it’s not known who the man’s dentist was, so dental records aren’t available to help with identification.
The Lodge Hill area home is owned by Robert “Bob” Vidali, a single man and part-time Cambria resident who also lives in Santa Barbara, according to Bob Putney, chief of the Cambria Fire Department.
Neighbors said Vidali was reportedly seen at the house Sunday.
The fire likely started near the fireplace, Putney said.
“It appears someone cut the wire holding the fireplace screen across the hearth,” he said, probably so a large log could be placed into the fireplace.
A log -- cut recently from a neighbor’s tree -- either rolled out onto the floor or sparks flew from the fireplace, he said. The blaze apparently spread to papers and other flammable materials stored in boxes near the fireplace.
Neighbors described Vidali as a warmhearted “packrat times 10,” an eccentric who loves to collect all kinds of items and stores many of them in his Cambria house.
“Every square inch of that house was chock-a-block with stuff,” neighbor Barbara Pierszalowski said.
According to Lorie Kniffen, another neighbor, Vidali had a pacemaker implanted a couple of weeks ago and “was so excited about life and living it.” She estimated his age at around 60 years old.
It’s the first fire-caused death in more than 30 years in Cambria, according to longtime firefighters.
Countywide, the Cambria death is the sixth caused by fire this year.
Neighbors spot fire
Residents in the heavily wooded, densely built-up neighborhood called 911 at 2:23 a.m. to report the blaze in the 2400 block of Kerry Avenue, an older log-style cabin with a newer addition, then went from door to door awakening others on the narrow street.
Pierszalowski, Tom and Valerie Haupt, Stephanie Arehart and others were among those sounding the alarm.
“Stephanie was great,” Pierszalowski said of Arehart. “She was in the Mathesons’ house behind the fire, patting down the beds in the dark, looking for the kids. She didn’t know the family had already gotten out.”
Firefighters arrived about 2:28 a.m. Fire Capt. Mike Gallagher, first on the scene, said the house was engulfed in flames and a van was also on fire. Some power lines were down across Kerry Avenue and others still in the air were ablaze.
Firefighters got early reports that someone was inside the burning house, but not where that person might have been, said Assistant Fire Chief Mark Miller of the Cambria Fire Department.
Emergency crews couldn’t go in the burning house because the blaze was so intense.
“The house was 90 percent involved when we got there,” Miller said.
A lack of wind on the chilly night helped crews protect adjacent homes. “It was a dead calm night,” neighbor Tom Haupt recalled. “Embers soared up 60 to 80 feet in the air, and then came down on the same property.”
The wood siding of an adjacent home was briefly ablaze.
About 35 firefighters from eight companies as far away as Paso Robles came to fight the blaze. Firefighters knocked down the blaze within about an hour, Miller said. The body was found about 6 a.m.
Total damages approached $900,000, according to Putney. He said he didn’t believe there was a smoke alarm in the home.
“If this had happened 10 days ago, when we had those strong offshore winds,” Cambria Fire Capt. Steve Bitto said, “we could have lost the entire block.”