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Family dog killed, structures burn in Pasadena fire
Flames damaged three residential structures in Pasadena Saturday and killed a family's dog.
PASADENA, Calif. - Tragedy struck a group of neighbors in Pasadena after a sudden fire broke out Saturday, damaging and destroying homes, but even worse than the loss of property - one family lost a beloved pet.
It appears that family members were calling out her name as this fire spread to other homes. Sadly, it just sounds like she hid somewhere and she unfortunately did not make it.
Firefighters have been here throughout the evening. They've been checking on the properties, making sure that no hot spots flare up.
These families have a long road ahead.
Decades of memories gone in moments as flames tore through Oscar Lee's Pasadena property, which he's had since 1984.
"It's not so much a structure. It's mostly stuff that you can't replace. Structure, all this, all this is just crap. You could replace all this, but you really can't replace, you know, memories and pictures and all kinds of other stuff that we have," he said.
But the most heartbreaking loss - his seven-year-old English bulldog, Roxy.
"I knew she was there and I was trying to yell for her, but I think she was already somewhere that we couldn't access her. And then it was confirmed later that she had.. she couldn't get out."
Oscar's son and daughter-in-law live in a house in the front of the property with their two pups, Peanut and Pumpkin.
They were all inside just before 2 p.m. when a neighbor started pounding on their door, shouting, "fire!"
"My husband immediately ran out, saw the house on fire, screamed, ‘Get the dogs! Open the side of the gate!’ And I run. I grabbed the dogs. I opened the side of the gate. I run around and get the hose. There's the hose on his dad's property, too. So he has one on one side of the house. I have one on the other side, and my neighbor next door is in his side yard with his hose because we were just trying to stop it from spreading."
Fire officials say six properties were affected, and 10 people displaced. It was a challenging battle for firefighters.
The extent of the damage is still unclear, but Oscar says he's determined to rebuild and to stay positive.
"We're always we always help people. We do as much as we can. We're always donating…. and then he's looking to say, ‘why me?’ But you know what? That's okay because we're going to be okay and we're still going to help people."
Still no word on what caused this fire. That is still under investigation.