{"id":318267,"date":"2023-01-03T16:45:04","date_gmt":"2023-01-04T00:45:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sdnews.com\/?p=318267"},"modified":"2023-01-03T16:45:04","modified_gmt":"2023-01-04T00:45:04","slug":"pacific-beach-residents-displaced-after-christmas-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/pacific-beach-residents-displaced-after-christmas-fire\/","title":{"rendered":"Pacific Beach residents displaced after Christmas fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

Several people living near a three-story, multi-unit building under construction in the 1700 block of Hornblend Street, destroyed by an early-morning fire in Pacific Beach on Christmas, were displaced and are picking up the pieces of their lives in the aftermath.<\/p>\n

Numerous GoFundMe pages have been started by friends, co-workers, and relations to help them out.<\/p>\n

Kaikoa Pezario, 23, who lived with three roommates in a four-unit townhome separated from the construction site by an 8-foot walkway, said they lost everything.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy room was upstairs \u2013 everything is gone,\u201d said Pezario, who was away visiting family in Fresno. \u201cThe place is completely unlivable. There is ash everywhere. It is like a war zone. It just smells. Everything is burnt. The only thing that was left was a small fireproof safe that had my birth certificate, Social Security, and other important documents.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greta Mezzetti, 17, who lives across Hornblend Street with her dad, lost her car in the blaze.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was parked in front of the site where the fire occurred in the wood structure of apartments under construction, and my sister woke me up at 1:30 a.m. to tell me it was full of flames,\u201d said Mezzetti. \u201cWe ran outside and saw that my car was already smoking. By the time we got outside\u2026 it wasn\u2019t worth saving the car.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI heard many sirens after midnight on Christmas morning,\u201d said Seth Pite, a PB commercial Realtor. \u201cI knew that only four engines get called to a fire, but after hearing\/counting more than four sirens come by, I knew there was something big happening. The smoke could be seen several blocks out and the structure was on fire. Station 15 (Sports Arena) was the second station on the call and by the time they arrived, the fire was really going. From the time engine 21 (PB) arrived to the time they got water on the fire, I was told the size of the flames had doubled.\u201d<\/p>\n

Added Pite: \u201cThe temperatures on Hornblend Street were extremely hot. The fire made its way into the neighboring property where it began spreading quickly and the fire department was working diligently to prevent it from spreading further throughout the structure. There were many trucks and captains\/chiefs from all over.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lance Greer, who had been wrapping Christmas presents, drove down to the scene after being alerted to the Hornblend fire. \u201cI kept hearing helicopters and sirens, so I knew something was really going on,\u201d he said, adding he \u201cheaded toward the smoke. It was a big fire \u2013 huge. It was pretty active. I\u2019ve seen fires before, but I\u2019ve never seen one like this. It was kind of a raging inferno.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
A huge fire on Hornblend Street consumed a three-story building under construction and damaged properties next to it on Christmas morning. PHOTO BY JOHN COCOZZA<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Greer described the fire scene as being bizarre. \u201cPeople were out there in their pajamas and bathrobes,\u201d he said, adding there was another thing unusual about this blaze. \u201cI\u2019ve seen lots of fire engines, but I\u2019ve never seen fire engines from all over like this before. There were engines with numbers from places I\u2019d never seen before.\u201d<\/p>\n

About 115 firefighters and medic crews were called to the scene of the fire at 1:04 a.m. on Dec. 25. A second alarm was requested at 1:17 a.m. and a third alarm went out at 1:31 a.m.<\/p>\n

The blaze jumped to a couple of palm trees at Lamont Street and Grand Avenue. According to San Diego Fire Department, the main body of the fire was knocked down by 2:06 a.m. Crews worked on two single-family homes nearby that were damaged by flames.<\/p>\n

Two firefighters battling the blaze were briefly hospitalized afterward with minor burns. Both were treated at UCSD Medical Center in Hillcrest and released.<\/p>\n

SDG&E was asked to shut down a power line involved in the fire. Several cars were damaged and power lines were downed in the blaze. There were no fatalities.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe San Diego Fire Department Arson Strike team is investigating the fire,\u201d said SDFD spokesperson Monica Munoz on Jan. 3. \u201cThere is no update (on the cause).\u201d<\/p>\n

Mezzetti said the loss of her car was especially unfortunate given that, \u201cI never park there.\u201d She thought at first her car might be spared because \u201cwater was spraying all over.\u201d But she added, \u201cThere definitely wasn\u2019t anything I could do about it. It was a freak of nature, an accident obviously. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was white and got toasted like a marshmallow. Now it\u2019s golden brown.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mezzetti said she has car insurance but fears that \u201cbecause it wasn\u2019t an accident, I don\u2019t know if it will be covered. My dad is dealing with the claim right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Greta\u2019s Go Fund Me page is at https:\/\/gofund.me\/d45af853<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Pezario pointed out that, because the building under construction was three stories, [the fire] \u201cjust went up and over everything, caught fire to all the townhomes next door, just starting at the top and burning down. Firefighters did a great job of stopping it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt could have been a lot worse,\u201d said Pezario. \u201cWe\u2019re all grateful that everyone is OK and that no one was seriously harmed, and for all the support that everyone has shown us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Pezario felt there was a lesson to be taken away from the tragedy.<\/p>\n

\u201cThough it was a tough time, with the generosity of everyone, it showed us the true meaning of the holiday season,\u201d he said. \u201cIt shows how quickly things can change overnight. And what is really important is our experiences and relationships with people. It just puts a lot of things in perspective. Things are just things, and can easily be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n

Other GoFundMe links for Hornblend fire victims are at https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/support-for-hornblend-house-fire-losses<\/a>, https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/hornblend-st-fire-recovery-donation<\/a>, https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/koa-pezario-christmas-morning-fire<\/a>, y https:\/\/www.gofundme.com\/f\/family-home-burnt-down-on-christmas-in-pb-fire<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Several people living near a three-story, multi-unit building under construction in the 1700 block of Hornblend Street, destroyed by an early-morning fire in Pacific Beach on Christmas, were displaced and are picking up the pieces of their lives in the aftermath. Numerous GoFundMe pages have been started by friends, co-workers, and relations to help them […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":840,"featured_media":318268,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"11559","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"Several people living near a three-story, multi-unit building under construction in the 1700 block of Hornblend Street, destroyed by an early-morning fire in Pacific Beach on Christmas, were displaced and are picking up the pieces of their lives in the aftermath.","_seopress_robots_index":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"source_name":"","source_url":"","via_name":"","via_url":"","override_template":"0","override":[{"template":"3","single_blog_custom":"","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_share_counter":"1","show_view_counter":"1","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"1","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","show_zoom_button":"1","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"1","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"override_image_size":"0","image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post":"0","trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post":"0","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","sponsored_post_name":"","sponsored_post_url":"","sponsored_post_logo_enable":"0","sponsored_post_logo":"","sponsored_post_desc":"","disable_ad":"0"},"jnews_primary_category":{"id":"","hide":""},"jnews_social_meta":{"fb_title":"","fb_description":"","fb_image":"","twitter_title":"","twitter_description":"","twitter_image":""},"jnews_override_counter":{"override_view_counter":"0","view_counter_number":"0","override_share_counter":"0","share_counter_number":"0","override_like_counter":"0","like_counter_number":"0","override_dislike_counter":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[11559,11550],"tags":[14446,13427,12697,12543],"class_list":["post-318267","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-beach-bay-press","category-top-stories","tag-christmas","tag-fire","tag-gofundme","tag-pacific-beach"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318267","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/840"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318267"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318267\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318268"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318267"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318267"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/test.sdnews.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318267"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}