Santa Rosa family of four loses everything in apartment fire

Juana Salgado cried Tuesday morning as a maintenance crew boarded up the fire-gutted three-bedroom subsidized apartment in southeast Santa Rosa where she and her children lived for the past 10 years.

The apartment, owned by Burbank Housing, was destroyed by an afternoon fire on Labor Day that left Salgado, 43, and her three children without a place to live and killed their dog, a 3-year-old golden retriever Chihuahua mix named Bella.

“Right now, I don’t have any place to live,” said Salgado, sobbing. “We lost everything.”

As Salgado stood next to her car, parked in a carport of the Grays Meadow Apartments just south of Kawana Springs Road on Meadow Way, a neighbor walked up and handed her a $20 bill. Another handed her a white envelope before giving her a hug.

The fire is still under investigation, but Santa Rosa Assistant Fire Marshal Ian Hardage said the fire does not appear to be suspicious.

Several neighbors at the scene Tuesday raised concerns about water heater systems that were upgraded about a year ago and how they smell of gas after turning on the hot water. But Hardage said neither the apartment’s tankless water heater nor its gas lines were compromised.

Hardage said the new systems, which fire up when hot water is needed or used, usually produce a small gas odor. He said it’s not a danger if properly ventilated.

“Gas is not a determining factor,” Hardage said. “Yeah, you’re going to smell a little gas, but gas is not even part of our investigation.”

Hardage said the apartment was still structurally sound and could be restored with new walls, roofing, electrical and plumbing.

Salgado, a single mother and domestic violence survivor who is currently unemployed, said she lost everything in the fire, including several televisions, a new washing machine and all the family’s clothing. She said her daughters lost their school uniforms.

“Everything is gone. The kids’ birth certificates, my little dog’s papers,” she said, speaking in Spanish.

Several neighborhood kids came up to comfort Salgado. One young boy said he helped bury the dog in a nearby field after it was retrieved by firefighters.

One of the neighbor kids, Jeremy Cervantes, 10, said when the fire started he could hear both Bella shaking its collar and a single bark coming from the apartment’s second floor.

“There was smoke coming out of the windows,”

Salgado’s son, Jose, 14, said Tuesday he and his mother were getting Chinese food at a nearby Panda Express when the fire began. He said when they got home someone told them their apartment was on fire. Jose, who said he saw smoke coming from the second floor, broke the glass of a fire extinguisher mounted to an apartment wall and cut his hand. He opened the front door with his key and saw smoke inside the apartment and fire sparks.

A student at Montgomery High School, he said he entered the apartment trying to save the family’s dog, but the smoke was too thick and the apartment too hot to stay inside to look.

“It was already too late,” he said.

Jose said several neighbors said they had called the fire department but “by the time they got here the whole house was in flames,” he said.?Hannah Scott, director of community engagement for Burbank Housing, said her department is working with the local Red Cross to determine the needs of residents ousted by the fire. She said it could take several months for Salgado’s apartment to be repaired.

“We are working with them right now to figure out” where to place them,” she said.

Aside from the Salgados, six other families were displaced, Scott said, adding that four will be allowed to return to their apartments tonight and another two by the end of the week. She said Burbank Housing will pay the cost of relocating Salgado and her children.

A GoFundMe account has been set up for the family by a family member to raise money for clothing, shelter, food, school supplies and other necessities, as well as to help pay for bills and car fuel.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707- 521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.