SAN DIEGO—A fire burned the home of San Diego County Supervisor Nathan Fletcher and his wife, former Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez, in City Heights in the morning of Jan. 12, but no injuries were reported.
“Our family is safe and for us, that is all that matters,” Fletcher said in a statement Wednesday morning. “We are grateful for the quick response of the San Diego [fire and police departments].”
The fire is believed to have started in an outdoor trash can. It reached the couple’s home at around 4 a.m. Firefighters evacuated the house and put out the quickly spreading blaze.
Fletcher said he and Gonzalez were awoken at about 4 a.m. by their smoke alarms.
“The front of our house was engulfed in flames, but we were able to safely evacuate out another door,” he said.
Firefighters were able to keep the blaze, which is believed to have started in an outdoor trash can, from reaching the interior of the residence, according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.
Though the multi-agency San Diego Metro Arson Strike Team was called in to investigate, the fire-rescue department’s spokeswoman Monica Munoz declined to comment on news reports stating that authorities consider the origin of the blaze suspicious.
The fire, which damaged a parked car along with the facade of the home, caused an estimated $36,000 worth of monetary losses, Munoz said.
Fletcher made mention of his family emergency later Wednesday at the start of the Board of Supervisors meeting.
“I want to thank everyone for their thoughts,” he said. “My family is safe. We are all in a good position. At the end of the day, all that matters is a person’s family. In any event, let’s do our work for today.”
Fletcher was recently re-appointed chairman of the regional panel. Gonzalez left the Assembly in January to take a leadership post with the California Labor Federation.
The couple was married in 2017.
