Four San Rafael families are out of their homes the day after Christmas because of a fire that heavily damaged their apartment building. One family escaped the flames by tying sheets together and climbing down from a second-story window.
All that's left of the apartment 16-year-old Eleam Rodas lived in with his parents and siblings is a burned out shell. It was a fire he barely escaped after being awakened from a mid-morning nap.
"I woke up to my dad coming inside the room telling me to get up and there's a fire," he said.
Rodas was groggy, but aware enough to try to get out.
"I tried to like, go outside the front door and there's fire all over the porch, so we had to jump out the window in the back."
Actually, they didn't exactly jump. They climbed down a couple of bed sheets that his dad hastily tied together, anchored, and then threw out the window.