E-bike charger starts UCSC family unit apartment fire Friday night; three families displaced
SANTA CRUZ, Calif. (KION) -- Three families are without a home after their building caught fire last night.
The cause was determined to be from an e-bike battery.
The explosion was called in just before 9 p.m. which was just before Juan Ruiz and his family were getting ready for bed Friday night.
"We were about to go to sleep and we just heard like sparks flying and opened the door to the bedroom and saw a huge red flash and knew that it was not normal, that there was a fire and just thought of grabbing the kids and running out," said Juan Ruiz, a student at UCSC.
The fire destroyed a family housing building at UC Santa Cruz. Now the homes of three families including Juan's are red-tagged.
According to a spokesperson from UCSC, an investigation revealed the fire was caused by a battery in an e-bike Juan's family owned.
"We've followed directions and brought our batteries inside when to go to the rain. And the batteries were just sitting in my office and they were not connected and one of them just went off," said Ruiz.
Juan was living in the unit with his partner and three kids. One teenager and two toddlers.
He is attending UCSC to get his PhD in Latin American and Latino studies. His diplomas, books, and cherished family belongings he tried saving are now destroyed.
This incident felt like a giant hurdle in the way of his dreams.
"It is devastating that we lost everything. We valued the material, including all the material that I had prepared for my qualifying exams, for my PhD program. It's like starting over in a sense. It's just there's no words for this feeling," said Ruiz.
The school says they're not leaving the families in this building without a home.
"We immediately put them in housing overnight so that they'd have a safe place to stay. And we'll continue to keep them in housing while we determine the next steps," said Scott Hernandez-Jason,
Spokesperson for UCSC.
Juan is grateful that his family and neighbors made it out safely.
"It's a blessing that we're together, that our family's safe," said Ruiz.
To helo donate, please click here.
The family is asking for helping locating their dog Luna.
