Fire Ravages Hillside Home of 2 School Principals

Two elementary school principals who had volunteered to feed Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless nearly lost their own home Thursday morning after a raging fire tore through the hillside house’s second story.

James and Cynthia Medina rushed home to find four firetrucks and 20 Ventura city firefighters mopping up after the 10 a.m. blaze in their recently remodeled east Ventura home. The fire caused an estimated $150,000 in heat and water damage throughout the house.

James Medina took the fire in stride.

“The most important thing is there was nobody in the house,” said the father of three, who is principal of Santa Paula’s Glen City School. “It looks like we’re remodeling again.”

His wife is principal of Piru School.

Firefighters were alerted to the fire on Skyview Terrace after the home’s fire alarm went off.

A single fire crew wound its way through the hilly, twisting streets of Ventura’s Ondulando neighborhood to see a small amount of smoke drifting from the home’s second story. Moments later, fire exploded out of an arched second-story closet window in the master bedroom.

“It just took off,” said Battalion Chief Mike Maher said.

Firefighters contained fire damage to the master bedroom suite, but smoke, water and heat damage was spread throughout the house.

Investigators later pinned the fire’s cause on an overheated curling iron.

Firefighters had a difficult time reaching the fire and were forced to cut a hole in the roof to allow smoke and gas to escape, Maher said.

The neighborhood’s steep, narrow and winding roads hindered the ability of the heavy firetrucks to reach the home quickly, he said.

Maher added that it was one of the rare times that a home fire alarm alerted firefighters to an actual fire. Most often, such alerts end up being false alarms.

“After we remodeled, we thought [the alarm] would be a very good idea,” Medina said. “It probably saved my house.”

Medina said that despite the damage to his own home, his family still plans to volunteer with the local Salvation Army chapter and serve Thanksgiving dinner to the homeless next week.