Five People Jump From Burning Chico Apartment Building

CHICO, Calif. -- Five people jumped from a second-story apartment to escape a fire coming through the front door early Sunday morning.

"I didn't feel like I had much time left -- the windows were cracking," said Megan Keller, a 22-year-old Chico State student who jumped for her own survival.

Sergius Chavez, 23, Gregorio Lopez, 23, Kristin Yokomizo, 22, Astiana Chavez, 22, and Keller were all asleep in apartment 13 of Mansion Apartments, 510 Nord Ave., when the fire broke out at about 6:49 a.m.

"Greg said he had a dream that the house was burning down, and then he saw smoke," Keller said.

Lopez ran to open the front door but the doorknob fell off as he grabbed it. He then ran to awaken the others.

Once they realized the front door was fully aflame, they knew they had to jump, Keller said. She didn't hesitate much before jumping out and landing on a bush.

"I wasn't really thinking, but I didn't want to die, so I jumped," she said.

Keller, Astiana Chavez, Lopez and Yokomizo made it out the front window after Lopez threw down couch cushions for the landing, but Sergius Chavez stayed behind, Keller said. He was in a back room finding another window Keller started to shout to him.

"I ran around to the back of the house, and he was looking out the window and I said, 'Jump. Everyone is out, just jump," she said.

Astiana Chavez suffered severe lacerations on her arm while climbing out of the broken front window, deep enough to reveal the bone. Yokomizo required stitches on her foot and lost both of her cats.

Yokomizo was the only member of the group who lived in the apartment, as the other four were visiting to celebrate Keller's semester abroad in Italy beginning next week.

The cause of the fire is currently unknown and under investigation, said Chico Fire Inspector Marie Fickert. The fire did start outside of the apartment on the concrete landing area between the two upstairs apartments.

Once the five were all safe, they and others tended to Astiana Chavez's arm and tried to keep her calm, Keller said. She was taken to Enloe Medical Center for surgery while Sergius Chavez, Lopez and Keller waited in the lobby for her and Yokomizo.

By that time, family members were there to console them. Aimee Keller, Megan Keller's mother, came from Browns Valley as soon as she heard from her daughter.

"She tells me, 'Don't worry about coming,'" Aimee Keller said. "I was like, 'No, I'm coming.'"

She then held her daughter and said "I'm just so happy that you're alive."

The mutual support made the shock easier to take, Megan Keller said.

"Kristin really cracked me up while we were with firefighters," she said. "She said, 'Yeah, we did it big -- we burned the roof down.'"

While gathered at the hospital, Fickert took the time to commend the group, especially Lopez, on the way they lowered their heads under the smoke, assisted each other in jumping and kept their calm overall.

"I want you guys to focus on what you did right," Fickert said. "You worked together as a team."

Aside from a firefighter suffering minor back pains at the scene, no other injuries were reported. Chico Fire Engineer John Maretti was able to revive a cat from apartment 12 using a specialized breathing mask.

The fire scorched the stairway between apartments 10, 11, 12 and 13, breaking windows, exposing insulation and forcing all residents in the apartments out. The four-apartment building sustained an estimated $170,000 in damages and apartment 13 is considered destroyed.

Yokomizo does have renters insurance, Fickert said. She recommends that families review their fire preparedness through maintaining insurance, making escape plans, checking smoke alarms and holding fire drills.

Emergency responders came in force to help out, Fickert said. Chico Fire alone sent five engines, one ladder truck, three fire prevention officers and a volunteer company. Three Cal Fire engines and a battalion chief were also there, along with members of Chico Police, Animal Control, PG&E, First Responder Emergency Medical Services, Enloe Ambulance, the Department of Water and the American Red Cross.

Jen Fouch and her boyfriend Matt Anderson were in apartment 11 as it happened. Fouch heard a smoke alarm and woke the others in the apartment.

"We came outside first and saw them struggling to get out," Fouch said between conversations with American Red Cross members. Yokomizo is a friend of hers and Fouch was certainly relieved to hear that nobody died.

Now that the emergency has ended, the group will now go back to their homes in the Marysville area or find other places to stay. The imagery and intensity of the leap won't fade soon for Keller even as she takes it in good stride.

"Well, that's one thing I've never thought I'd say I've done," she said.