Early Morning Fire Guts Concord Home
CONCORD (CBS-SF) – An early morning fire Wednesday gutted an unoccupied home and damaged another in a Concord neighborhood, authorities said.
Battalion Chief Dominic Ciotola said firefighters were hindered in their initial efforts to fight the blaze because of a live downed power line and a ruptured gas line leading into the home.
"When we got here we found it was fully involved," he said.
Ciotola said the call came into 911 reporting the fire in the 1900 block of North Third Street at around 2:30 a.m. and that it was controlled in about 20 minutes.
Residents of a nearby home were evacuated and their house suffered some minor damage.
Crews also searched the burned out home for any victims since there have been reports of squatters in the area.
Fire Marshal Robert Marshall said an eviction had recently taken place at the home so no one was supposed to be there, but fire officials learned a number of squatters had apparently been living there.
No injuries were reported and a cause of the blaze was under investigation.