Cig started house fire that displaced three

Fire officials said an unattended cigarette was likely the cause of a one-alarm fire that displaced three people in Hayward this morning.

Fire spokesman Don Nichelson said the family’s son was smoking a cigarette in the downstairs bedroom when he put it in an ashtray and walked away:

“I guess the cigarette rolled off the ashtray.”

Firefighters responded to the fire at a two-story house in the 25600 block of Soto Road north of Harder Road around 7:50 a.m., Nichelson said.

Crews extinguished the blaze by 8:05 a.m., but not before it had spread to a second-floor bedroom. Nichelson said:

“It’s not habitable. Most of the damage was smoke damage. The crews did a good job of stopping the fire, but smoke rises and there’s a bedroom on the second floor.”

Nichelson said the family did not hear the smoke alarms going off, even though they knew the alarms were working.

The husband said the alarms went off a week prior when his wife was cooking dinner, so they knew they were working. According to Nichelson.

“The father said that it was probably because of all the commotion that they didn’t hear them.”

No injuries were reported.

Nichelson said he didn’t yet know how much the estimated damage would cost.

The family is staying with relatives in the meantime, he said.