BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — A woman, who saved the lives of four children during a huge apartment fire in East Bakersfield, tells about how she sprung into action.
While their parents were away Cynthia Burgos neighbor stepped up saving not only her own kids but her neighbor’s children too.
The building in ruins was vacant but neighbors said the homeless have been using the building for a while.
The fire destroyed one building and spread quickly to the next. When it spread, Burgos rushed to alert her neighbors and save the children inside another unit.
“My neighbor had gone to the store and left the children at home,” Cynthia Burgos a neighbor at the apartments said. “Four children, it was just them. I took them out of there and as I took my own children.”
Another woman, Luvy Lopez, got to safety with her three-month-year-old granddaughter as they watched the fire spread inching closer to their home.
“It was scary because the fire going on top of the roof was like a volcano,” Lopez said. “A lot of fire on top of us we ran over there and out with my baby.”
Lopez says the apartments have had multiple fires over the past decade.
“Homeless people would come and stay in there but this is the fourth time that this place got on fire,” Lopez said. “This isn’t the first time.”
Bakersfield Fire Department is unsure what started the fire and the investigation into that continues.
“Our investigative unit has received reports that there have been transient activity in and out of that building,” Bowman said. “The building was secured.. at the time of the incident but again there were multiple reports of transient activity within the structure.”
No one was hurt in the fire and 13 people who have been displaced are all receiving aid from the Red Cross.
