A Morgan Hill family lost a litter of puppies and the home they
built
”
from the ground up
”
in a blaze that firefighters say was likely caused by two
outdoor heat lamps.
A Morgan Hill family lost a litter of puppies and the home they built “from the ground up” in a blaze that firefighters say was likely caused by two outdoor heat lamps.
The front exterior of the two-story home on the 3200 block of Butterfly Lane near the end of a cul-de-sac in the Holiday Lake Estates neighborhood, showed little visible damage Tuesday morning, but the interior was gutted. Residents Ron and Paula Hubbard, and their granddaughter Amber, were visibly distraught as they sorted through the wreckage in an attempt to salvage what belongings remained.
“I’m numb. I don’t know how I feel,” said Paula Hubbard while crying.
Firefighters responded to the fire after receiving numerous calls from the neighborhood about 5:40 p.m. Monday. Emergency personnel from South Santa Clara County, Santa Clara County, the city of San Jose and the city of Gilroy responded to the fire, and crews remained until about 2:30 a.m. Tuesday.
The destruction to the house amounted to “almost a total loss,” according to South County battalion chief Ken McGeever. The home is uninhabitable, and the Hubbards stayed in a hotel Monday night.
None of the residents or firefighters suffered any injuries.
However, firefighters recovered the remains of five puppies and one adult dog, according to Santa Clara County fire investigator Jeremy Davis. The family had a total of 10 dogs at the residence, including the deceased puppies, and firefighters and neighbors were able to save four pets before they were consumed by the fire.
The Hubbards said the puppies were Yorkshire terriers.
The couple housed the puppies, born about a week earlier, in a cardboard box on the home’s second-story back porch, where the fire started, Davis said. Two outdoor heat lamps had been clamped onto the edge of the box, pointed at the litter to keep them warm. The heat from the lamp bulbs touching the cardboard likely caused the fire, though Davis added he could not rule out a potentially faulty power strip or extension cord into which the lamps were plugged.
Neighbors first saw smoke coming from the back porch about 4 p.m., Davis said.
“It was burning quite a while before we got there,” McGeever added.
The fire started slowly, and neighbors who used home extinguishers and garden hoses to attempt to put out the initial flames could not keep the fire from spreading onto the roof and inside the home, according to firefighters and neighbors.
“We put it out for a while, but it started again,” said neighbor Robert Rael, who used an extinguisher and helped, along with a handful of other neighbors, to save the home and pets before the fire department arrived. “We did our best.”
Another neighbor, who declined to provide her name, said the first fire crew did not arrive at the scene until about 30 minutes after she called 911.
South County personnel remained on the property, with engines and other equipment stationed atop the steep driveway leading down a hill to the home, until Tuesday afternoon to clean up and ensure no smoldering embers remained.
In a sadly ironic twist, a previous home at the same lot, also occupied by the Hubbards, burned down about 14 years ago, Ron Hubbard said. He never thought it would happen again.
They finished building the house that burned Monday about a year ago, and it was a “beautiful home,” Hubbard said.
“We don’t know what we’re going to do,” he said. “My wife, I don’t think she ever wants to come back up here.”
Helping the family clean up and gather undamaged belongings from the home’s remains Tuesday was Paula Hubbard’s cousin Shirley Nunes of Hollister. She said the family was “shocked” and “devastated” by the loss.
The couple made “so many sacrifices” while building the home, including living in a single-wide trailer on the property for five years, Nunes said, and were eager to celebrate Christmas at the home with relatives.
“In one moment your whole life, all your possessions, gone – it’s a nightmare,” Nunes said.
