A fire of unknown origin tore through a home near Escondido Country Club on Friday, leaving a married couple in need of emergency lodging and killing their cat.
The blaze in the 2000 block of Sleepy Hollow Road erupted about 10:45 a.m., authorities reported.
An engine crew with the Escondido Fire Department happened to be nearby and was able to get to the burning two-story house promptly, said Bill Frederick, a battalion chief with the San Marcos Fire Department, which also responded to the emergency along with personnel from the Deer Springs Fire Protection District.
It took the multi-agency contingent about 25 minutes to get the flames under control.
Firefighters found the couple’s stricken pet and tried to resuscitate the feline, to no avail. The blaze caused no other injuries, Frederick said.
The American Red Cross was called in to help the displaced residents — a woman in her mid-50s and her husband, who is in his early 70s — arrange for interim housing.
The fire resulted in roughly $400,000 worth of damage, Frederick said. The cause remained unknown as of late afternoon, though investigators suspected that some kind of electrical malfunction within a rear wall was to blame.
