Crime & Safety

Traumatic Return for Resident Injured in Wyandotte Fire

The cause of the two-alarm fire that injured two residents and two firefighters last Saturday has not yet been disclosed.

James Davis cannot yet return to occupy his smoke-stained apartment, with fire fighter-made skylights in the living room. When he does stop by, he tries to enter and leave quickly.

"It brings up memories," he told Mountain View Patch Thursday afternoon when he stopped by to picked up his mail and a few belongings from his unit at 2260 Wyandotte St. He declined to be photographed.

On Saturday, Sept. 15 the Mountain View Fire Department received reports of the fire and upon arrival they encountered flames eminating from unit No. 7 on the second story of the second building in the eight unit complex. .

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As Davis attempted to escape the fire, which began next door to his unit, he suffered second- and third-degree burns to his forearm and fingers—still wrapped in gauze after his discharge from Standford Hospital. The freelance writer still has exposed burn marks on his necked. The man with whom he shares an apartment also suffered burn-related injuries and remains in the hospital.

Outside in the parking lot, Marcos Cano shared that his wife happened to be home during the fire, reported at 5:18 p.m. They live on the first floor of the unaffected building. They couldn't return until Sunday.

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Cano shared that his wife was scared and he met her outside when he returned home. He explained that a girl warned everyone to get out of the apartments and two men were the last to exit. Those two were Davis and his apartment-mate.

Davis said that he from his bedroom he began to smell something funny and he heard some weird sounds. He poked his head outside his front door and saw the flames directly in front of him. So he ran back inside to awaken his apartment-mate, who works nights and sleeps during the day. They both then ran outside.

As Davis relived his experience in the parking lot of the complex, he stepped into the shadows. "I'm not a big fan of heat," he said. After the temporary housing that the American Red Cross provided him, he now sleeps on a friend's couch in Sunnyvale.

"I'm glad I didn't take a nap an hour earlier because I would have been dead," Davis said.


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