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Gene Kennedy Reporting A West Valley family will have to find a new place to live after a fire broke out at their duplex. Fortunately they weren't home when their residence burned. A man and his two kids will now have to stay with a relative who lives across the street.
Smoke was billowing from the roof as fire trucks lined the street to put the fire out. Investigators think embers shot out from the man's fireplace. By the time crews arrived, it was a lost cause. Flames and smoke engulfed the building.
The smoke was so thick, it was affecting children at the Twenty-Four Seven Daycare, a couple blocks east of the scene. "They said that they put them all in the TV room where there wasn't really any smoke and that they were all crying, and all their eyes were burning," said mother Ashlee Pinola. "I guess it was pretty bad."
Susan Southerland with Twenty-four Seven Daycare described the fire by saying it was going strong for a good hour or hour and 15 minutes. She said the smoke was so bad you couldn't see the mountains.
Sixty-two kids had to leave the daycare, which is closed for the day until the carpets can be cleaned. There are plans to re-open tomorrow.
The other unit in the duplex was vacant. The duplex is a total loss, with damages estimated at at least $100,000.
