Imperial Valley Press Online - Local News - Family escapes as flames gut house

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Family escapes as flames gut house
By SILVIO J. PANTA, Staff Writer

Monday, January 5, 2009 12:12 AM PST

PAUL NILSON PHOTO
Holtville Firefighter Manuel Mendoza aims water at flames inside a home on East Cruickshank Road near Holtville on Sunday morning.

PAUL NILSON PHOTO
Firefighters work to extinguish a fire that tore through a home near Holtville on Sunday morning.

HOLTVILLE — Four members of a Holtville-area family narrowly escaped with their lives Sunday morning when a fire gutted their wood-framed house on East Cruickshank Road near here.

Firefighters battled the flames that engulfed Edgar Lomeli’s home at 95 E. Cruickshank Road.

Thick black smoke filled the three-bedroom house as the 20-year-old private security guard awoke and quickly took his wife and their two small children safely outside.

Lomeli made the 8:33 a.m. emergency call from a neighbor’s home. His wife and children stayed there while firefighters doused the flames.

Barefooted and still wearing his pajamas, Lomeli went back to the home he and his family had occupied since May. The house was under his mother’s name and Lomeli was making the $1,200 mortgage payments, he said.

“We were asleep,” Lomeli said. “I didn’t hear anything.”

The local chapter of the American Red Cross provided Lomeli’s family with shelter for five days at an El Centro hotel, said Sylvia Preciado, director of the Red Cross chapter in El Centro.

Lomeli’s mother is visiting in Ensenada, and is apparently unaware of what happened to the home, Preciado said. The family is still trying to contact her, Preciado said.

Imperial County Fire Chief Tony Rouhotas said a cause behind the fire has not been determined but the fire will be investigated.

Three fire engines from Imperial County and a fire engine from the El Centro Fire Department responded to the scene. Firefighters from Holtville also were on scene.

>> Staff Writer Silvio J. Panta can be reached at 337-3442 or at spanta@ivpressonline.com

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