SPFD, mutual aid knock down early morning apartment fire at SP Village

What could have been a deadly fire was knocked down by 22 firefighters early Monday when a metallic object placed in a microwave caught fire, displacing two occupants at a North 8th Street apartment complex. One firefighter received a minor injury during the firefight.

According to Santa Paula Fire Asst. Chief Luis Espinosa, the December 5 blaze was reported as a structure fire at 2:23 a.m. 

When SPFD Firefighters arrived at Santa Paula Village Apartments — located at 214 N. 8th St., Apt. 42 — Espinosa said they found “An upstairs apartment unit fully involved in fire. Firefighters immediately engaged in an aggressive interior fire attack,” supported by mutual aid from Ventura County and Fillmore Fire departments.

The fire was knocked down in approximately 20 minutes and the fire damage was confined to the unit involved, although the apartment below sustained some water damage.

The occupant of the unit was able to escape.

Espinosa said one Ventura County Firefighter received a minor injury, a laceration on his scalp; he was treated at Santa Paula Hospital and released.

The cause of the fire was “determined to be a metallic object in a microwave oven, it was one of those coffee mugs, steel or some other metal.”