Family Alerted by Car Horn Escapes Predawn House Fire

THOUSAND OAKS — Barbara Allen was jolted out of bed early Friday morning by the irritating sound of her new Acura’s horn, inexplicably honking again and again inside her garage.

That annoying honk may have saved her life, as well as that of her teenage daughter.

When Allen grabbed her keys and headed to the garage shortly after 3 a.m., she discovered a fire roaring inside the adjacent car, a Nissan Sentra. She quickly grabbed her 17-year-old daughter, Brooke, but did not have time to collect much else.

Within minutes, Ventura County firefighters swarmed on the scene, squelching the blaze and preventing it from spreading to the other spacious, single-family homes along Clarendon Place.

But it was too late for the house Allen was renting from a neighbor: Its wood-shake roof soon caught fire and partly collapsed, causing an estimated $70,000 in structural damage as well as $45,000 in damage to its contents.

And it left Allen--whose other daughter, Lisa, 13, was visiting her father when the house caught fire--without a home.

Neighbor Dana McQuaid was one of several friends and relatives helping Allen load her belongings--down to the bottles of salad dressing inside her former kitchen--into trucks Friday so they could be placed in storage.

All things considered, the fire could have caused much worse damage for the Allens and the neighborhood in general, she said.

“The house is totaled, but at least they got out safely, and a lot of their stuff seems OK,” McQuaid said. “The flames were huge, like 100 feet, billowing up in the sky.”

Thanks to the Ventura County chapter of the American Red Cross, the Allens were put up in a motel room Friday and were also given clothes to wear until they can get theirs cleansed of smoke. Barbara Allen’s friends and neighbors said that she seemed to be in shock. She declined to comment.

“It’s very traumatic for the family to go through something like this,” said Albert Chan, leader of the Red Cross Conejo Valley Disaster Action Team, who arrived at the scene before dawn. “In a short period of time, they have to come up with a new set of long-range plans, and we’re helping them. In the meantime, we’re helping out with the short-term plan.

“They’re doing fine,” Chan added. “We have counseling help if they need it. All the family and friends are there to support them, and neighbors are calling asking what they can do to help. They have lots of support.”

After Allen discovered the fire, daughter Brooke dashed to neighbors’ houses asking for help, and the Ventura County Fire Department was soon deluged with calls.

Firefighters arrived to find the house aflame, but were able to corral the blaze quickly, containing it by 3:55 a.m. and extinguishing it by 6:32 a.m., officials said.

Allen and her daughter were treated for minor smoke inhalation at the scene, but escaped in generally good shape and did not need to be taken to a hospital, said Fire Department dispatcher Vicki Crabtree.

“They made a really good stop on the fire,” she said.

One of the Allens’ cats, Gus, never left the house and survived amid the smoke by hiding under a bed, according to McQuaid. Acquaintances said a second family cat, Stretch, was still missing Friday afternoon, but believed to be all right.

Investigators determined that the fire did indeed start in the garage because of an electrical problem with Allen’s 1987 Sentra. Allen told firefighters that the car had not been driven for some time, Crabtree said.

McQuaid said the man who owns the house two doors away from the fire scene was vacationing in Hawaii and likely unaware of the near catastrophe.

“I don’t know if he’s been notified yet,” McQuaid said, “but that’s not the kind of thing you want to hear on vacation in Hawaii.”

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Times staff writer Scott Hadly contributed to this story.