FREMONT — An apartment fire in Fremont left a Manteca woman dead after she dangled from a fourth-floor balcony to escape the blaze before plummeting to the ground below, eyewitnesses and authorities said on Monday.
The Sunday fire, which remains under investigation, killed 54-year-old Charlotte Holguin and critically injured a man who also dropped from a fourth-floor balcony, authorities said. Two other people were injured in the incident, authorities said, though it is unclear how they were hurt.
“The screams woke me up,” Sam Cruz, a neighbor, said Monday morning. “They were crying for help for 10, 20 minutes before (first responders) arrived. It just seemed like a normal house fire … then all of a sudden it lit up.”
The flames erupted about 2:53 a.m. Sunday in the Waterstone Apartments, 3939 Bidwell Dr., authorities said.
By Monday morning, the 30-unit apartment building’s facade remained charred and a large hole in the fourth-floor roof could be seen from the street.
Cruz, 20, said he watched from the ground floor parking lot as flames appeared to burst through the fourth-floor apartment’s living room and spread to the balcony, where allegedly Holguin and a man were calling for help. The flames pushed them to the edge of the balcony.
Cruz said he watched the two dangle from the balcony for several minutes, as fire crews arrived and rushed to fight the fire. They did not deploy a ladder in time to rescue Holguin or the man, Cruz said, and they ultimately fell four stories to the ground.
“There was a lifeless body,” Cruz said. “You could only assume that one of them was dead.”
Holguin was pronounced dead at the scene. The other victim who fell was transported to a hospital and was in critical condition Sunday. A third victim was in serious condition and a fourth person was treated and released at a hospital.
“I’ve just been trying to wrap my head around it, but it’s hard to forget,” Cruz said. “I didn’t know if everything was going to collapse or what was going to happen. The fire grew really fast.”
Waterstone Apartments resident Mabu Basha and his family have been displaced after a fire in a neighboring apartment unit on Monday, April 7, 2025, in Fremont, Calif. One person was killed and three others were injured Sunday morning in a two-alarm fire at the apartment complex that left dozens of residents displaced, authorities said. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group) (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
Authorities said the first fire engine arrived on scene within minutes after the blaze began and found heavy fire conditions venting from the unit. Fremont Fire Department spokeswoman Aisha Knowles said the first battalion chief on scene requested a second alarm, which brought more than 30 firefighters to the apartment complex. Firefighters brought the fire under control by 3:40 a.m. authorities said.
Dozens of residents were displaced by the blaze due to widespread smoke and water damage, Knowles said. The building was “red tagged” by city inspectors, meaning it is not habitable.
Ajaz Mohd, a third-floor resident of the apartment building, was asleep alongside his wife and one-year-old daughter when they heard fire alarms going off. He thought it was a false alarm, he said, and went back to sleep.
It wasn’t until a fourth-floor neighbor called to tell them to get out, he said.
“People were running downstairs,” Mohd said. “We just took our documents and came outside.”
From the parking lot, he and his wife both saw Holguin and the other male hanging from the fourth floor. He said he watched them both fall, as a bystander ran to try and catch them. The two fell on the bystander, injuring the bystander, Mohd said.
He and his family are now staying at a friend’s home, unsure of when they will be able to return to their apartment.
When firefighters later let them back into the building to collect their belongings, he said first responders had broken down his front door during the blaze. He said several neighbors are considering filing legal claims against the apartment building, and added he wants to get back to his unit to assess the damage before deciding whether to file a claim of his own.
“I’m struggling because I don’t have clothes for my daughter,” he said. “I have so many things I have to buy. They are not helping us.”
The cause of the fire is still under investigation and a damage figure has not been determined.
Fremont Fire Department vehicles at the scene of a fatal fire that erupted about 2:53 a.m. in an apartment in building 25 of the Waterstone Apartments at 3939 Bidwell Drive on Sunday, April 6, 2025, in Fremont, Calif. One person was killed and three others were injured Sunday morning in a two-alarm fire at the apartment complex that left dozens of residents displaced, authorities said. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
