YC home damaged by blaze

A Yuba City family was without a home Saturday after heavy smoke and fire damaged much of the residence.

Nichole Rico, 24, and Kim Fox, 22, were in the home on the 700 block of Jones Road when they heard a loud noise and began seeing smoke pouring from a vent around 2 p.m.

"We ran out of the room and just heard people yelling there was a fire and to get out," Rico said.

Rico said she and Fox ran to inform their mother, Angela Paiva, who was doing dishes in the kitchen when she noticed the smoke.

"I didn't hear anything," Paiva said.

Yuba City Fire Department Batallion Chief Gary Garrisi said most of the damage was confined to the laundry room, but much of the house had smoke and heat damage.

Rico said she was grateful Fox, an Appeal-Democrat employee, was visiting because she and her mother might have been asleep if she wasn't there.

In the rush to get out, Rico said the family left their elderly Pomeranian inside. She said the dog likely hid under a bed in the mix. Less than 20 minutes after evacuating, the dog was returned to them by firefighters. She was shaken but OK.

"I'm glad she's OK," Paiva said.

Garrisi said the cause of the fire is under investigation.

Contact Appeal reporter Andrea Koskey at 749-4709 or akoskey@appealdemocrat.com