UPDATED: 2 Found Dead Inside Mission Hills Home That Caught Fire Early Tuesday

SAN DIEGO - Firefighters extinguishing a blaze Tuesday that destroyed a heavily cluttered Mission Hills home in which they then discovered the bodies of two people.

Flames began spreading through the house in the 1700 block of Fort Stockton Drive for unknown reasons about 5 a.m., according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department. It took crews slightly less than one hour to get the blaze under control, after which they discovered the unidentified victims.

"The high amount of items inside the home ... made the fire burn very quickly and very hot, which made it difficult for crews to extinguish," SDFRD spokeswoman Monica Munoz said.

Neighbors told news crews a bedridden woman and her adult daughter lived in the home. A passer-by watching the firefighting operation tripped and hurt himself slightly, Munoz said.

Medics treated and released him at the scene. The estimated monetary losses were set at $250,000 to the structure and $20,000 to contents.

The cause of the fire remained under investigation in the early afternoon.

By City News Service / Image via Shutterstock