Updated: House Fire Displaces Three Altadenans From Home

A house fire at 165 Wapello Lane on Wednesday night resulted in roof and other structural damage and has three residents displaced from their home, according to Inspector Matt Leveque of the Los Angeles County Fire Department.

The fire was the result of a grease fire that started in the kitchen and spread into the attic, Leveque said.

The department received the call at 9:19 p.m. and had the fire out by 9:38 p.m.  Four fire engines and a squad of firefighters were dispatched to the address.

Still, the fire caused an estimated $35,000 in structural damange and $10,000 in damage to property within the home, according to Leveque.

"When it is significant enough to get up into the attic there will be some structural work that needs to be done," Leveque said.

The three residents of the home are currently staying with friends, he added.

They were alerted to the fire because of a smoke detector, and were not in the kitchen when the blaze went up, Leveque said.

Altadena Patch first learned of the fire from the @sgvscanner Twitter feed, which posted something about it shortly after the call went out.

Updated: On Thursday morning the home owner was back at the home at work, but declined to speak to Altadena Patch.

Outside on the short cul-de-sac where the home is located, there were nearly a dozen contractors hanging out to bid on repairing the home.

According to two who spoke with Patch, it is standard procedure for a crowd of them to show up after a fire seeking to do repair work and handle the insurance claim.

Mario Reyes, of the Pomona-based Pyramid 1 Construction company, said that competition is intense and fights sometimes break out.

He said he sometimes goes as much as six months without bidding a job, but usually it becomes a big pay day.  His full time job is to show up to the scenes of residential fires and bid on repair work.

Omar Gonzalez, of the Santa Ana-based General Building Construction company, said that home owners will come out and go from contractor to contractor and find the lowest bidder.

Reyes said that most of the contractors employ someone to listen to a police scanner to find fires, and sometimes contractors are on the scene shortly after a fire is put out.