SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — The sound of ambulances and the bright light of a major fire woke up everyone along Hornblend Street at 1 a.m. on Christmas day.
“The flames were 100 feet tall, easy," said Neil Charette, the Deacon at Pacific Beach Presbyterian Church.
Charette's church is across the street from where the fire started. He was sleeping in his van when it happened.
“It was this huge blaze," Charette said. "The roaring of the blaze is what woke me up. It was so loud.”
Charette has acted as a night patrol at the church for the last 17 years, but he felt helpless against the flames.
“It’s just so humungous that you feel like you're this big,” Charette said.
The fire started inside a construction site for an apartment complex. Charette says the heat was so strong that it cracked the church’s windows and melted part of the door to their preschool. It also melted the doors of cars parked nearby. Some of the owners were out of town for the holiday and will return home to this.
“Some girl said that her car was on fire and her dad was going to kill her,” said Sam Samson, a resident living two blocks away.
Charcoal droppings spread the flames to a couple of palm trees on Larmont Street and Grand Avenue.
“It was raining fire," Samson said. "Even by our apartment down the street, there’s charcoal droppings everywhere.”
The flames were close to multiple power lines. SDG&E had to turn off electricity at nearby homes for up to 12 hours.
“People were trapped inside their garages, trapped inside their apartment complex," said Craig Newell, Battalion Chief of the SD Fire Dept. "They couldn’t get their cars out because their garage doors didn’t work.”
The fire burned three houses. San Diego Fire says it grew quickly because of flammable fluid and construction equipment, but they’re still investigating the exact cause. Two firefighters were injured, one from heat exhaustion, and the other had minor burns. San Diego Fire says they were treated immediately and are okay.
