Cupertino Fire Displaces 40+ Residents

More than 40 people were sent to a shelter after a fire at a 16-unit apartment building in Cupertino this morning but there were no serious injuries, Santa Clara County firefighters and American Red Cross officials said.

The county fire department was dispatched at 2:28 a.m. to the two-floor apartment building at 7375 Rollingdell Drive just west of South De Anza Boulevard in Cupertino where crews observed a full structure fire, fire spokeswoman Stephanie Stuehler said.

The blaze apparently started inside an exterior closet on the patio of a first-floor unit and spread to a unit on the second level, Stuehler said. No one was injured enough to be transported to a hospital although three residents complained of non-emergency injuries for treatment at the scene, she said. The cause of the fire is not known yet, she said.

At 4 a.m., the American Red Cross, Silicon Valley chapter, opened a shelter at the Quinlan Community Center at 10185 N. Stelling Road in Cupertino for the 41 adults and children displaced by the fire, according to spokeswoman Pooja Trivedi.

Red Cross volunteers provided warm meals, a place to sleep and support for the residents, Trivedi said. Of those displaced, 13 decided to stay overnight and the rest were able to contact family and friends to stay with, she said. The Red Cross is prepared to offer shelter to those who still have not found a place to stay tonight, she said.

The fire department was at the scene of the fire today and trying to determine which of the units in the building to “red tag” as uninhabitable due to fire damage and “yellow tag” as habitable for residents, she said.

--Bay City News

--Shutterstock image

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