Fire in Paradise Hills home kills 1, critically injures second man

One man died and another man was injured in a Paradise Hills house fire Sunday night and investigators are trying to determined how the blaze started, fire officials said.

The fire was reported on Calle Cumbre near Sedgewick Street around 10:15 p.m. and by time firefighters arrived, the single-family home was fully engulfed with flames showing from the windows, fire officials said.

When firefighters were able to enter the home, they found two people inside suffering from burn injuries.

Paramedics performed CPR on one of the men at the scene before transporting him to the hospital. The second victim also was in “critical status” and was transported to the UCSD Regional Burn Center, San Diego Fire-Rescue Battalion Chief Rick Ballard told OnScene TV.

Neighbors said two older men shared the house, but rarely went outside or interacted with others on the street. The name of the man who died was not immediately released.

“They were very quiet,” said Sylvia Soltero, who lives nearby. “I hardly ever saw them outside.”

Neighbors said they heard a loud nose from the home and rushed to investigate.

“We were settling down for the night and I heard a big boom,” said next-door neighbor Cristal Gonzales.. “It woke me, it shook my house. I heard our dog going crazy.”

Her husband, Mitchell Gonzales, said he ran outside to check on the noise and saw smoke coming from the front door. “I saw flames coming from the front door and started hollering,” he said. “No one responded.”

They called 911, and he began spraying down the house with a garden hose to try to contain the blaze. When smoke began seeping from the side window, neighbors helped him pull the hose around the house, but they still couldn’t get in, he said.

They continued calling to the occupants, and finally heard one of the men cry out from the garage.

“That’s when I heard screams, and asked ‘Where are you?’ ” Mitchell Gonzales said.

Metro Arson Strike Team investigators determined that the fire was accidental, although they don’t know what caused it. It took fire crews from the San Diego and National City fire departments about 45 minutes to get the fire completely knocked down, said San Diego Fire-Rescue Department spokeswoman Monica Muñoz.

Ballard said fire crews had a difficult time making their way into the home because the house was so filled with furniture and personal items.

“There’s just a lot of items in the house,” he said. “It was high-piled with newspapers, a lot of clothing and furniture. There were no clear pathways within the house.”

Mitchell Gonzales said the men’s cats also died in the blaze.

One man died and a second was hurt early Sunday in a house fire on Calle Cumbre in Paradise Hills.

(Nelvin C. Cepeda / San Diego Union-Tribune )

pauline.repard@sduniontribune

Twitter: @pdrepard

UPDATES:

1:00 p.m. This article was updated with additional details.

This article was originally published at 10:40 p.m.