SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - A father is on a ventilator with severe burns after shielding his 2-year-old son during a raging house fire in the Mount Hope area this past weekend.
The Dehnz family was on the second floor of their duplex when the chaos broke out. On Sunday afternoon, not long before thick black smoke and flames poured out of the home on Carlos Street, the family was getting ready to go out to eat.
"They were upstairs getting ready as a family when they heard an explosion downstairs," Kolenya Dempsey said.
Dempsey said a fire took over the home within minutes. The escape route for her niece, Shaliah, Shaliah's husband, Rick, and their 2-year-old son, Ricky, was blocked.
"They had to take the stairwell down, and it was covered in flames. Rick covered baby Ricky, shielded him, and that's how his whole back, his face, burned," Dempsey said.
The family raced out barefoot and empty-handed. Rick suffered second- and third-degree burns across more than 50 percent of his body. Shaliah was released from the hospital within a day.
"So baby Ricky has some burns on his back and his hands," Dempsey said. "He has a little singe on the tip of his nose, but he's up and moving."
That Sunday, as family members were being rushed to the hospital, we talked to neighbors who described the intense fire.
"Explosions, then everyone screaming," a neighbor said.
Dempsey said the family's two pets died in the fire, which appears to have started in the kitchen.
"It turns out that the battery from their electric bike exploded," Dempsey said.
Fire officials said the cause of the fire is undetermined, but they confirmed the discovery of the e-bike battery.
The fire claimed all of the family's belongings, though they did have renters' insurance. Both Rick and Ricky are undergoing surgeries on Wednesday.
“Rick is a hero. I’m just so grateful husbands are willing to put their lives on the line for our babies. I’m so grateful that he was there for Shaliah and their baby," an emotional Dempsey said.
A GoFundMe campaign has been set up to help the family with medical and other expenses.
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