Wire causes electrical chain reaction in Lodi house fire

LODI (WABC) -- A high-voltage electrical line arced and created a fireball after it had fallen onto a chain-ink fence right outside homes in Lodi.

Gene Anderson, an electrician, heard the explosion and ran outside. In the neighboring house, two families desperately began their frantic escape.

"The wire was draped over the fence and it was touching the ground," said Anderson, "it was a six to eight feet fireball - easy."

Sasha Guerra's mother, Nora Ramos was yelling to her children.

"She had heard the sound of an explosion and that's when she started to panic and tried to get everyone out of the house," said Sasha.

Sasha, her brother Paul and their mother then ran to the back of their second floor apartment.

"There was no way out, we had to find some other way just to be safe," Paul says.

Back out front, the fallen line, Gene Anderson believes, energized the ground and set the house on fire.

"It traveled underground, and you can see where it actually sparked on the railing," added Anderson.

The second family escaped safely, bus Sasha, her brother and her mother were climbing out the back bedroom window onto a metal awning, jumping six feet to the ground.

"Every single step you take it felt like you were going to fall in, so we just had to run down and fall," said Raul Guerra.

PSE&G officials say a Mylar balloon caught in the 13,000 volt line caught fire and brought it down on the fence. Sasha and her family just want to go home.

"It worries me knowing that I really don't have a house right now, but I'm really hoping for the best," says Sasha.