Apartment fire breaks out on Genessee; no injuries reported

Food left cooking unattended on a stove Tuesday sparked a fire that destroyed a University City- area apartment, left three residents in need of interim shelter and killed two pet cats.

The blaze in the 9500 block of Genesee Avenue was reported about 10:45 a.m., according to the San Diego Fire-Rescue Department.

A number of residents of the building safely fled their units as crews were en route, SDFRD spokesman Maurice Luque said. It took firefighters about 10 minutes to extinguish the flames in the ground-floor residence, which was occupied only by a pair of cats that did not survive the blaze, Luque said.

The American Red Cross will help secure temporary lodging for the man and woman who lived in the gutted apartment and a resident of an adjacent unit that sustained water damage.

Investigators set the monetary losses at $200,000 to the structure and $50,000 to items inside the fire-ravaged residence, Luque said.