Electrical problem may have sparked morning house fire

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» 122 days ago: Electrical problem may have sparked morning house fire «

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131 days ago: Son saves ailing mother from fire; 40 firefighters finally tame blaze

(Juan Carlos Pometta Betancourt/Special to The Examiner)
Ravi Lal, left, the owner of a fire-damaged home, will have to move with his family to a hotel for a few days. There were no injuries in the blaze, though the family’s white chow chow was turned gray.

SAN BRUNO (Map, News) - A fire in a house displaced one family on the same day that a blaze on San Bruno Mountain temporarily closed a middle school.

After Ravi Lal and his wife, Ajaishnee, left for work Friday morning, their house, which they have owned since 1985, caught on fire, most likely from an electrical malfunction in their dining room.

“We lost a lot and, of course, all of our memories — I had my kids’ pictures in there,” said Ajaishnee Lal, pointing to the dining room where all that remained of their computers, pictures, toys and a bar was their scorched outlines.

No one from Lal’s six-member family was injured in the fire on Atlantic Avenue, which is behind the Tanforan Shopping Center.

Standing next to the corner where the fire started, Ravi Lal, his eyes red from smoke, said he could not believe his home burned down only days after an apartment complex in Redwood City, where he works, also burned when a car exploded there Tuesday.

Family members were carrying out their belongings to move to a hotel, where they were planning to stay for the next few days. Barking through the clamor of the family’s sobs and worries was Snowball, the Lals’ 4-year-old chow chow whose white fur turned gray from the smoke.

“We don’t know what to do with Snowball because we can’t take him to the hotel,” Ajaishnee Lal said.

A few miles away, a grass fire burned almost 2 acres of hillside behind Lipman Middle School in Brisbane. That fire was started at 8:53 a.m. by a 13-year-old student playing with a lighter, fire officials said.

The school, located at 1 Solano St., had to be temporarily evacuated and students missed their first class, Principal Jolene Heckleman said.

“They were very concerned,” she said. “The students love the mountain — it’s something many of them are very attached to.”

The grass fire was controlled in 30 minutes by 33 firefighters from North County Fire Authority, South San Francisco Fire Department and Cal Fire, according to NCFA spokesman Clyde Preston. He said the fire did not threaten any homes or cause any injuries.

The grass fire is presumed to be unrelated to the two grass fires that churned 8 acres on San Bruno Mountain last month, according to fire officials.

svasilyuk@sfexaminer.com

SEE THE LATEST ON THIS STORY

EMAIL STORY

PRINT STORY

76 days ago: No suspect caught yet in string of suspicious fires

99 days ago: Mysterious fire breaks out on cargo plane

103 days ago: Fire could summon 14th-century fear

103 days ago: Smoky skies could return to San Francisco after clear day

106 days ago: Fires erupt across county on hot weekend

117 days ago: Arson suspected in forest inferno

120 days ago: Woodside fire burns property, cars and hillside

» 122 days ago: Electrical problem may have sparked morning house fire «

125 days ago: Explosion sparks two-alarm fire

131 days ago: Son saves ailing mother from fire; 40 firefighters finally tame blaze