Discarded smokes set mattress on fire on southeast side

At about 8:10 p.m. Sunday, the Tucson Fire Department responded to a home in the 8400 block of East Via Cortina de Madera where a mattress was ablaze in the second-floor bedroom.

A Tucson Fire spokesperson who lives in the area was the first to be on scene, the department said in a news release. Heavy smoke was observed coming from the second floor.

All residents were evacuated from the home before the first engine arrived on scene. 

Firefighters quickly extinguished the fire before it could spread to other areas of the residence. A high-powered fan was used to blow away the residual smoke. The blaze was under control within 12 minutes of the first engine arriving.

The residents of the home included three children – ages 12, 9 and 6. 

Tucson Fire determined that the fire originated from the second-floor bedroom's mattress, where an adult male "improperly discarded smoking material," the news release said. 

Two of the children heard a fire alarm and attempted to put out the fire using water. When they couldn't, they got out of the house and notified a neighbor.

The neighbor ran upstairs and helped the adult male, who had health issues, out of the house. One child and the adult male were taken to the hospital as a precautionary measure.