By Raiza Giorgi
As Santa Ynez Valley resident Dani Tupper was driving with her son passed Cesar’s Car Wash in Santa Ynez Friday evening, she noticed smoke coming from a neighboring property and pulled over to see the shed fully engulfed in fire. She parked her truck away from the flames to protect her son, and ran to see how she could help as there were no authorities on scene yet.
“The flames were 15 feet from the gas station… On the porch was a sweet little girl screaming for help. I jumped the fence and started asking who else was in the house and she said just her mom who was trying to put out the fire,” Tupper said on her social media post.
The fire in the 3100 block of Highway 246 was reported by multiple parties around 8:41 p.m., according to Santa Barbara County Fire officials.
Tupper said after calling in the fire she ran to the back of the house where she found the mother hosing down the yard with a garden hose.
“I grabbed the hose from her and told her to grab the dogs and leave. There was a generator that exploded less than 10 feet from me,” Tupper said in her post.
She then let the chickens out of their coop to escape and grabbed the little girl as the father and authorities from SBC Fire and the Sheriff’s Department arrived.
“Firefighters found the shed fully engulfed as well as power lines down and a vehicle on fire,” said Captain Daniel Bertucelli, of SBC Fire.
Firefighters quickly knocked down the fire and are investigating the cause of the fire. There were no injuries reported, Bertucelli added.
Tupper said she left the scene to get back to her son and not get in the way any further and hoped that the family was alright.
