Oceanside Family Homeless After Fire

More than a dozen people are homeless after fire guts a garage and a four-unit Oceanside apartment building.

The fire, which broke out around 5 p.m. in the two-story building on El Camino Real, displaced an extended family of 15 that lived in three units and two other tenants from the fourth, according to the North County Times.

Edward Hernandez, a 14-year-old El Camino High School student, told the paper that he was playing video games with his cousins at their neighboring apartment when he smelled smoke.

As the smell got stronger, he went outside to investigate and noticed heavy smoke coming from under the garage door. He ran back into the apartment, called 911, and also told his cousins to get out of the house, he said.

When a neighbor opened the garage door, Edward said raging flames inside frightened him.

"I thought it was going to blow up," he said later in the night as he and his large family huddled in the driveway watching firefighters rake through noisome ash and debris.

No one was hurt. The Red Cross was called to help find shelter for the residents and a cat. Read more in the full article in the North County Times.

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