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Two-alarm fire in Campbell home sparked by cigarette
Residents escape without injuries, damages total $340,000
By Genevieve Roja
A discarded cigarette was the cause of a two-alarm structure fire last Tuesday at 1620 Edgewood Drive.
The owner of the house, Bill Moore, his brother Dan, their 80-year-old mother Catherine and two dogs escaped unharmed. The only victim was their black cat, which the brothers believe may have perished in the fire.
According to Santa Clara County fire investigator Tom Tornell, the total loss for the property is $340,000. He concluded that "the cigarette fell from the workbench onto combustible papers" on the garage floor, and from there the fire grew, spreading to the roof.
"It wasn't intentional," Tornell said. "Accidents happen."
Dan Moore suspects that when he let the cat into the garage, it might have pawed at the ashtray and ignited the premises.
It was a typical summer evening, just before 6 p.m., when the fire broke out. Bill was in the kitchen cooking a quesadilla, while Dan sat in the screened-in patio eating a salad and watching the major league baseball All-Star game. After smoking a cigarette and extinguishing it in an ashtray in the garage, Catherine Moore was resting in her bedroom. Suddenly Bill heard a popping noise coming from the garage.
"My brother hollered for me," Dan said. He said his brother shouted for him to get their mother before he went into the garage, where he was overcome with smoke and heat.
Bill tried to douse the fire with a fire extinguisher to no avail. He ran to his mother's room, and carried her outside to the curb. Dan went around the side of the house and rescued the dogs. The cat was nowhere to be found. After failing to reach 911 because their phone lines were dead, Bill wet down the roof to prevent the fire from spreading.
While the Moore's next-door neighbor Erv Fettchenhauer doused his own roof with the garden hose, Erv's wife Sue called 911.
"It was pretty devastating," said Fettchenhauer, whose house was imperiled by the rising flames. "We were not quite emergency prepared. But all the neighbors pitched in; they were very helpful."
After the emergency call went in to dispatch at 6:22 p.m., Engine No. 10 from the Sunnyoaks Avenue station arrived on the scene. They were soon followed by five more trucks for a grand total of 12 firefighters. Campbell police also responded to the scene.(Although the Moore residence is on Los Gatos land, their neighborhood falls under the jurisdiction of Campbell's city services.)
Upon arrival, firefighters were told by neighbors that ammunition was stored inside the garage. The ammunition turned out to be 60 rounds and a sports shotgun, both used by Bill for clay-pigeon shooting. At 7:18 p.m., the fire was deemed under control.
"It's a tragic experience, but you have to remember it's only material things," Bill said.
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Campbell, California
