Woman felt something was wrong before discovering house fire
By Nancy Needham nancy@theacorn.com

She didn't know her attic was smoldering, but Ann Berg recalls a weird, uncomfortable feeling as she and Russ Estes, her fiance, sat in their living room enjoying a fire in the fireplace.

"He was playing golf on the X-box, and it should have been a picture-perfect Sunday evening," said Berg.

It was cold outside and the two of them were relaxing. Berg's daughter, Shelby, 14, was also at home, and everything seemed fine, except for her own anxious feeling, she said.

It was a little before 7 p.m. on Sun., Jan. 28 when Berg left her home in the 1700 block of Burning Tree Drive for the Longs drugstore nearby.

When she returned, she told Estes the house smelled a little smoky, so they opened the front and back doors for a few minutes to air it out. Then she went into the kitchen and made herself some dinner. Just bean dip and chips- no cooking, Berg said.

She went into the garage and gathered some laundry from the dryer. She then opened the attic by pulling down a ladder; she peered inside but didn't see any problem. She went back to the living room and again told Estes she was feeling apprehensive that something was wrong. Because he was scheduled for surgery the next day at West Hills Hospital and Medical Center, Estes suggested Berg was just nervous for him.

Berg went back to enjoying the fire when she heard what sounded like three knocks above her head in the attic. She got up and returned to the garage, where she smelled a chemical odor, she said. She decided to give the attic a better look. This time, she turned on the light.

There was a trace of smoke, which made her go outside the house to investigate.

When she got there, she saw smoke pouring from the roof.

"I ran inside and yelled to my daughter and my fiance, 'Get out of the house!'" Berg said.

Her daughter called 911. Berg grabbed the TV and took it outside. She grabbed the X-box and took it outside. She went back in to get the cords to the video game, saw the ceiling in the living room turning brown and decided that was enough. Meanwhile, Estes had turned on the water hose outside and was doing what he could to put out the fire, she said.

Three engines responded to a 911 call that came in at 7:18 p.m., said Capt. Barry Parker, Ventura County Fire Department spokesperson. Neighbors also reported seeing smoke coming from the roof, he said.

When the firefighters arrived, Berg realized she was standing outside barefoot in the cold evening. Her TV was saved, but there were no shoes on her feet; she laughed as she recalled the moment.

The fire was extinguished by 11:30 p.m., and all three settled down for the night at the Thousand Oaks Inn at around 3 a.m. Estes had to get up a few hours later to check into the hospital for his surgery, Berg said.

Firefighters told Berg the fire was the result of a missing piece of mortar on the inside of the fireplace chimney, something that couldn't be detected from the outside. A spark must have gone up and traveled into the attic, she said.

The family has been housed by the Ventura County Red Cross at the Thousand Oaks Inn since the incident. Berg said she rents the house and now must decide what to do. The family needs permanent housing, she said, and they'd like to move back into the house as soon as it's available, but asbestos is involved, and that's a complication.

The asbestos has also made anything that cannot be easily wiped down unusable, Berg said. That means the family will never get back its couch, clothes and linens.

She's glad no one was hurt during the fire and is thankful for what they have.

"There are many people a lot worse off than we are," Berg said. "We could have all been asleep when this happened."