SAN DIEGO (KGTV)- Residents in a South San Diego Apartment complex worked together to fight a fire that started in the patio.
At around 10:45 Sunday morning, San Diego City Fire Rescue teams responded to the 1700 block of Oro Vista Road. Heavy smoke was billowing from the patio of a downstairs apartment.
"I called 911 automatically, and that's when the person who lives upstairs came running out,” Alexa Delgado said.
Delgado had just arrived at the Oro Vista Villas to visit her mother when she saw the flames.
"It started popping, and the fire started coming out,” she said.
It was in that moment of chaos that she found herself and several neighbors step up to help. One neighbor pulled the smoke alarm, others smashed fire extinguisher boxes and started spraying down the patio, and she protected the neighbor's pet birds, all before the fire department arrived.
Engine 30’s Fire Captain, John Wilson said what the residents did in the first minutes of the fire helped suppress the flames.
"There was an alarm that was going off upon our arrival, so the smoke detectors did their jobs and got everyone out safely,” Captain Wilson said.
Delgado says what happened today was a true testament to the word “community.”
“A bunch of neighbors helping and asking if anyone living there, went upstairs to see if anyone was in there and helping out."
Fire investigators are still looking into what exactly caused the patio fire. No one was inside the home when the flames ignited. No one was injured or displaced by the fire.
