Family displaced following Calexico house fire

A Calexico family of five is displaced after a fire ravaged through their home Tuesday night.

The Calexico Fire Department responded to a third alarm structure fire on 400 block of Washington Street, located across Calexico High School’s 9th-grade campus just before 8:00 p.m.

The residents of the home Jason Ruiz said they were not present when the fire started.

” We were on our way to El Centro, we were going to dinner. I got a call from a friend saying my house was on fire and I thought she was joking, ” said Ruiz.

It wasn’t a joke, Ruiz received a text message with a picture of his house burning up in flames.

The Ruiz family rushed back to their house, their number one concern was their dogs, Loki and Logan.

“He said I couldn’t go in, so then I told him those are two lives, those are my dogs they’re my family,” said Ruiz.

Loki and Logan were nowhere to be found, the Ruiz family prayed the two dogs had escaped during the fire.

Later Tuesday night their dogs returned home.

” My dogs, I thought my dogs were there, and I was losing it, imagine having my little brother or my mom in there. You look at the situation and you say, I’m thankful to God, I thank God that none of us were here, nothing happened to us, ” said Ruiz.

The house fire turned into a three alarm structure fire due to the hot temperatures.

“Temperatures at the time of the fire, even though it was 7:30 in the evening, temperatures were still high,” said Eduardo Ainza , Calexico Fire Department Captain.

“With the temperatures that high the work duration for each firefighter is greatly reduced,” said Ainza .

Neighboring agencies were called to help with the fire.

“Once the fire had been mitigated and the level of danger was low, we were able to retrieve specific items for the residents,” said Ainza .

The Ruiz family has lived in their home for about 17 years.

“We lost a lot of memories a lot of mementos, but all of that will live on in our hearts,” said Ruiz.