Firefighters dousing massive house fire in Watsonville

A house suffers severe damage after a fire in Watsonville.

Firefighters arrived just after nine Wednesday morning. It happened on 33 Riverside Dr.

Capt. Corey Schaefer with the Watsonville Fire Department says the fire started in an outdoor shed.
“The out building was the primary source of ignition. But it did catch the adjoining house on fire. Uhm, we had smoke and embers go into the attic, space,” says Schaefer.

There were numerous engines, water tenders, and 40-50 firefighters. The fire was called in by a nearby worker, Jose Villafuerte. Jose says, “the sun got blocked off, and I just looked up and like… that was the smoke. It covered up the sun”

Firefighters climbed through a crawl space to get inside the burning building. Schaefer says, “Firefighters went up into that second story. Pulled ceilings and with firefighting, uhm, with their lines in place were able to extinguish that fire kind of up in that rafter space.”

The only injury reported was minor hand burns by a nearby resident… but she did not go to the hospital. The fire was fully contained by 1:30pm. There is no known cause at this time. Traffic on highway 129 is now back up and running.