Early morning house fire displaces six people ‘indefinitely’

Six residents are displaced after the garage attached to their home caught on fire early Tuesday morning.

The rental home is on the 200 block of Santa Barbara Shores Drive. Firefighters did not release the cause of the fire, but a resident inside the home told our reporter a lit candle was the cause.

“It was coming out the side of the window. They were 5 to 10 feet tall and then smoke was coming out of every hole in this whole house,” said Jeff Svoboda, a resident in the home.

According to Santa Barbara County Fire Capt. David Zaniboni, the residents have been “displaced indefinitely.”

The fire was reported at 12:42 a.m. Zaniboni said when firefighters arrived, they discovered the garage fully involved in flames. Firefighters mounted an aggressive attack and managed to contain the fire to the garage. The garage suffered major damage.

Jeff Svoboda and his friends rented the home. Svoboda has lived there for about 5 years.

“It’s a lot of people’s homes for the 6 people who lived here and [for] a lot more people who have come by. Now we got to move,” said Svoboda.

The residents spent Tuesday morning and afternoon going through their belongings that was stored in the garage. They had to determine what they could keep or throw away. Many of the items seemed like they had memories attached including 35 surfboards that used to be neatly stacked beside a wall.

“My neighbor gave me this board growing up. He bought this board from Big 5 back in 1963,” said Svoboda.

Most of the damage from the fire is inside the garage, but the smoke did spread throughout the home. The residents have to move out.