A 500-square-foot apartment burned Nov. 20 in the in the 200 block of West 14th Street in San Bernardino. The property was in foreclosure and had $100,000 in code enforcement fines since 2009
SAN BERNARDINO –A father who survived an apartment fire that killed his two children has pleaded not guilty to a series of charges including involuntary manslaughter and causing a fire with great bodily injury. Efrain Suarez, 47, is held in lieu of $400,000 bail. Suarez was severely burned while trying to rescue the children, aged 6 and 2, from their apartment last November. Suarez, his wife and their children had been ordered evicted from the apartment on West 14th Street because of code enforcement violations. Investigators say that the family’s living conditions contributed to the fire.