3 Perish In San Jose Apartment Fire

SAN JOSE (CBS SF) -- San Jose fire investigators are looking through the rubble of an apartment as they try to determine what sparked a fire that killed three people and sent three others to a hospital late Saturday.

San Jose Fire Department Capt. Mary Gutierrez said that when firefighters reached the scene, shortly after 11 p.m. Saturday, they found some people trapped in the burning apartment on the second floor of the complex in the 3000 block of Bridgeport Court.

After the fire was put out, firefighters found the bodies of a man, a woman and a child.

Three other people, including a San Jose police officer on the scene who aided in a rescue during the fire, were taken to area hospitals after suffering smoke inhalation in the blaze, Gutierrez said.

Firefighters attacked the blaze and kept it from spreading to other apartments, knocking it down shortly after midnight. Fire personnel confirmed that three people inside the affected unit, identified only as a man, woman and young child, died from their injuries.

The names of the three people have not been released.

The apartment where the fire occurred was severely damaged, the captain said. The fire also displaced some fifty-six residents from the same building.

"It's not an easy investigation, it's going to be a long investigation," Gutierrez said.

The American Red Cross was ummoned to help find housing for the displaced residents.

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