Brentwood House Fire Kills Resident, Injures Another
BRENTWOOD (CBS SF) -- One man is dead and his son is fighting for his life after an apartment fire in Brentwood Thursday afternoon.
Investigators say the fire started around 1:35 p.m. inside a unit on the 200 block of Nancy Street. The two men were trapped inside the apartment and had to be rescued by firefighters.
Family members identified the two as 79-year-old Jesus "Jessie" Sandoval and his son, William Foster. Firefighters said Jessie died at the scene, while William was in critical condition at a San Francisco hospital.
Jessie's family says he spent his entire life working in the fields in Brentwood and for years was an orchard foreman at Bloomfield Fig.
Neighbors told investigators they saw flames coming from the kitchen area and one man even tried to fight the fire before crews arrived armed with a garden hose in each hand.
"I started screaming at them to 'get out! get out!' There's a fire and I was screaming but I don't know if they heard me," said Lupe Carreon, who lives nearby.
Investigators are still trying to figure out how the blaze started.
"We haven't seen any smoke alarms that have been found inside the apartment right now. That is a common cause of people who aren't able to get out of a home in time," said Steve Aubert, spokesperson for East Contra Costa Fire Protection District.
Aubert credits the quick response from firefighters for preventing the fire from spreading to neighboring units.
© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. and Bay City News Service. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. KPIX 5's Katie Nielsen contributed to this report
