Two people in Palo Alto were able to make it out of a house safely after the oven caught fire Sunday, fire officials said.
Fire crews responded to a one-alarm fire at a single-family home on the 2900 block of Cowper Street in Palo Alto at 3:53 p.m., said Palo Alto Fire Department Battalion Chief Bobby Davis.
Davis said a man and woman escaped before fire crews arrived.
The fire was mostly contained to the oven and parts of the kitchen, but smoke caused damage throughout the house, Davis said.
Fire crews doused the blaze around 4:03 p.m., and Davis said firefighters left the scene roughly 35 to 45 minutes later.
There were no injuries reported, he said.
We live a block from this home. We are glad everyone is safe.
I have never understood what the term “one (two, three) alarm” means. I thought it had to do with the number of responding vehicles. Yesterday, there were seven vehicles at one time, including Mountain View as well as Palo Alto Fire Department trucks.
Maybe it was just a slow Sunday, and these departments decided to waste a little gasoline to cure their boredom?
@grandmakk
I don’t know this for sure, but I grew up with the understanding that the number of alarms corresponded to the number of times they had to call for more engines, not the number of engines that showed up. Perhaps the firefighters will weigh in with more authoritative information.
I’m sure firefighters have no problem entertaining themselves on a slow Sunday without responding to alarms for entertainment’s sake.
I appreciate the strong response to a residential kitchen fire that could easily have included a gas-fueled fire and threatened multiple homes. I’m glad that it turned out to be a very contained issue, and I appreciate the caution and responsiveness of our firefighters!
Thank you PAFD and MVFD!