A person was critically burned and a single-story house heavily damaged Tuesday when a fire erupted in west Riverside.
The blaze was reported about 3:30 a.m at 10245 Victoria Ave., near Tyler Street, according to the Riverside Fire Department.
Battalion Chief Pat Hopkins said five engine crews and a truck company, numbering just over two dozen personnel, were sent to the location and encountered flames raging in the single-story ranch-style home.
“The residents had evacuated to the front and alerted fire personnel to a critical burn patient on the front sidewalk,” Hopkins said.
He said that paramedics rendered emergency aid and arranged for the victim, whose identity was not released, to be transferred to Arrowhead Regional Burn Center. The patient remains in critical condition.
No one else was hurt.
Firefighters got the blaze under control by 4 a.m. Damage to the house was estimated to be $200,000, with most rooms and the roof impacted, according to Hopkins.
“The cause of the fire … appears to be electrical in nature,” the battalion chief said.
None of the neighboring residences were damaged.