Man killed in Shell Beach house fire

April 28, 2017

A man in his 50s died in a Shell Beach house fire Thursday evening.

Around 5:30 p.m., a fire broke out on the second floor of a converted apartment building in the 200 block of Esparto Avenue. The building, which now has three units, was previously a single-family home.

Firefighters arrived at the scene, contained the blaze to the second floor and then extinguished the fire.

While putting out the fire, responders found the man’s body inside a second floor unit. Authorities have yet to release the identity of the victim.

The cause of the fire is unclear. An investigation is ongoing.


Loading...
5 Comments
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments

Remember the old days? The old days where the fire department showed up at a house and expected to find one family living in the home who all know each other? And not multiple units with multiple families that do not know one another and confusion about who lives where? I recall the time I gave a Hispanic man and his 3 children a ride “home”, only to arrived at a hotel that had about 20 people (multiple families) living there. Are we packing so many people into housing that it is dangerous?


I saw a YouTube video recently that is interpreted by the Western mind as “creepy”. What it ACTUALLY IS: China allows 2 children instead of just 1 in certain provinces now–and what you are seeing in the video–is they plan for their population growth BY ANTICIPATING AND PREPARING HOUSING FOR THEM TO LIVE IN. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wm7rOKT151Y


This is in contrast to the thinking in the US (and in SLO County). We have more than one family stuffed into hotel rooms–more than one student to a bedroom–people actually renting out their couches–and we do not plan for our population at all. We just blindly assume it will all work out by itself. Problem is–that sometimes means having so many people in a house you cannot keep track of them. And this can mean tragedy in an emergency.


Why did you mention “Hispanic”?


What is your problem, San Louie. The commentor was recounting an actual event. He probably said “Hispanic” because he didn’t know what country the people were from. Should he have lied and said “Swedish” or “Kenyan”? We do have a problem with poor people and multiple families living together, and some of these poor people are recent illegal immigrants from Mexico and Central America. That’s a fact.


He actually is proposing that we consider a solution–that we plan for population growth so people will have decent places to live without this overcrowding.


Lots f baseless assumptions without knowing any of the facts.You might consider being a bit more sensitive considering the tragedy.

Perhaps it’s time to STOP circling the drain and simply go away.


Sounds like fire department damage control to me… Houses have been divided into multiple units forever. There are no such good old days. What about when firefighters actually took risks and verified there was no occupancy as a first priority? I sure hope they didn’t run any master streams through the vent holes in the roof. Because if they did, then if anyone had been alive before that, they wouldn’t be after.