Several fires hit San Jose's east neighborhood simultaneously, three homes burned

San Jose firefighters work on a fire on Sand Point Drive near Quimby Road in San Jose, Calif., Sunday, June 2, 2024. (Nhat V. Meyer/Bay Area News Group)

San Jose firefighters dealt with several fires at once in an east San Jose neighborhood Sunday evening.

The San Jose Fire Department posted on social media at 5:45 p.m. that it was responding to three separate fires near Quimby Road and Sand Point Drive. As of 6:30 p.m., the department said six buildings were affected, spread across two residential buildings.

At the scene Sunday evening, Fire Capt. Thomas Lo said firefighters faced dangerous conditions made worse by heat and wind, but limited damage to homes at three residences.

All people in each building were evacuated and no injuries were reported, the department said.

Lo said calls came in just before 5 p.m. about a house fire in Sand Point. “The first arriving crew found heavy fire in the garage of one of the residences,” Lo said. As firefighters began to attack the blaze, area residents reported more fires, Lo said. “It appears the embers were from the initial fire and were carried across the street to two separate locations in Quimby,” Lo said.

Khoi Nguyen of San Jose said his grandmother called him Sunday night and told him her Sand Point house was on fire. Nguyen, 25, believes the flames spread to her grandmother's home from the house next door and she lost all her important documents, including her passport and driver's license. His grandmother planned to stay with her sister, he added.

Johnny Uy, who lives next to one of the homes that burned in Sand Point, said he went out Sunday afternoon to get a drink and then saw black smoke in his neighborhood. Um, 37 came back and found the house next door engulfed in fire, he said. “I’m just thankful everyone got out safe,” Uy said.

NBC Bay Area broadcast helicopter footage showing smoke coming from what appeared to be one or two adjacent homes and another home on a different block of a four-lane street. A zoomed-in video showed flames bursting through the roof of a home with a fire department ladder truck next to it.

Firefighters tweeted photos of two ladder trucks dumping water on a burning structure.

Lo said Sunday evening around 7 p.m., fire crews planned to spend the next few hours making sure all hot spots were eliminated in all affected structures.

Bay Area News Group photographer Nhat Meyer contributed to this report.