The State Fire Marshall’s Office is investigating a fire that burned down a house in Cuarteles early Tuesday morning.
The house, originally a mobile home that was retrofitted into a two-story home, was empty at the time of the fire, Santa Fe County Assistant Fire Chief Martin Vigil said.
Fire Investigator Dan Wright said Tuesday afternoon he did not yet have information on the fire, and referred questions to a spokesman. Public Regulation Commission spokesman Martin Carbajal said the identity of the house’s owner and the cause of the fire remain unknown.
A neighbor who declined to provide his name said the house’s owner, whom he identified only as “Sylvia” was out baby-sitting a relative’s daughter when the fire started.
“The investigation is just now starting, so everything is pretty much on the table right now,” Carbajal said. “The process of elimination starts here. But there’s no indication in terms of the debris of where the evidence is pointing.”
La Puebla Fire Chief Joseph Sandoval said a neighbor called Santa Fe County dispatchers around 3 a.m. to report a home was on fire on State Road 76 about a mile and a half west of the intersection with La Puebla Road. Firefighters were on the scene within 10 minutes. It took three hours to get the fire under control and another three hours to completely extinguish it, Sandoval said.
“There were a lot of hot spots, a lot of debris we had to deal with,” Santa Fe County Assistant Fire Chief Martin Vigil said. “The fire was so big, it was visible from (Highway 84/285).”
State Police blocked off a section of State Road 76 Tuesday morning while the fire was being extinguished.