Fire destroys vacant house in Ocotillo

According to the Imperial County Fire Department, the incident is being treated as suspicious - News 11's Vanessa Gongora reports

OCOTILLO, Calif. (KYMA, KECY) - A fire was reported inside a vacant house just off Seminole Avenue which almost spread to nearby neighbors.

On Wednesday, May 4, the fire completely destroyed the home and also burned the side of the neighbors shed.

Fire departments from San Diego, Imperial, El Centro, Centinela and Holtville all responded.

Alfredo Estrada, Imperial County Fire Chief said there were about 40 firefighters on scene.

According to Chief Estrada, there was no one inside the house and the neighbors homes were saved.

One neighbor Mark Silva did say that it came close.

"Actually you can hear in one of my videos, I say, oh it looks like it's going to go horizontal. Meaning spread, so yes I was fearful this whole block was going to start burning," said Silva.

Another resident Joseph Steele said he came over to see what he could do to help. He is in a course called fire science in the Imperial Valley Regional Occupation Program (IVROP).

"I'm part of the IVROP program at Imperial High School so I'm currently in the progress to becoming a firefighter so this was a good opportunity for me to get out and see what goes on out here," said Steele.

Steele said he assisted by moving a few vehicles out of the way and was thankful the firefighters saved neighboring homes.

"I feel like they did a great job. They did everything on time how they were supposed to and they got it done fairly quickly," Steele said.

According to the Imperial Fire Department, the fire took about two hours to put out.

"At this time we're still investigating the fire and it's undetermined until we complete the investigation," said Chief Estrada.