A mid-afternoon house fire in Clairemont displaced five people Friday.
The non-injury blaze erupted about 3 p.m. Friday in the 5000 block of Mable Way, just west of Interstate 805 and north of Clairemont Mesa Boulevard, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
It took crews roughly 15 minutes to extinguish the flames, which seemed to be centered in the rear of the single-family home, SDFRD Capt. Jason Shanley said.
The house is unlivable after the family spent 17 years making it a home.
“It’s just a shell. There is nothing inside. All of it,” Gazelle, who wished only to be identified by her first name, told NBC 7. “It’s gone. Everything is gone.”
She and a friend were away getting food for the family when the fire broke out. She says family members, including an infant and four adults, escaped with their lives and little else. Many of the family photos and keepsakes are damaged.
Mia Basile and her family own the home. She says two bedrooms, a bathroom, kitchen and shed were destroyed.
“They said it was an electrical thing that they heard popping,” Basile said. “It really could have been much worse. Someone could have gotten hurt.”
Responding firefighters are calling it an accident, with no evidence of arson.