Southeast Santa Rosa house fire displaces 16 people

Sixteen people were displaced Sunday after a fire ravaged their home in southeast Santa Rosa but did not injure anyone.

Firefighters received a call at 3:55 p.m. about a fire at 1195 Santa Barbara Drive, just south of the Sonoma County Fairgrounds, and extinguished the blaze by 4:23 p.m., said Ronald Busch, acting battalion chief for the Central Fire Authority of Sonoma County. The cause of the fire was still under investigation, Busch said.

“It’s all uninhabitable. The building is going to be boarded up and tagged,” he said.

Thirty firefighters from Central Fire, the Santa Rosa Fire Department and Cal Fire responded to the scene, using seven fire engines, one truck and one air unit, according to Busch. The Red Cross was providing assistance to the displaced individuals, who made up seven families, officials said.

Resident Alex Hernandez was standing outside the house Sunday evening with his mother, Lilia, who needed to get back inside to retrieve her insulin.

Hernandez, who said he lived at the house for two years, was still wearing his Burger King uniform, because he said he was at work when his mother called to tell him about the fire. The fire was already out by the time Hernandez arrived and he said he did not know what may have caused it.