Sev­en peo­ple es­caped death yes­ter­day morn­ing af­ter fire broke out in a San Fer­nan­do apart­ment house while they were asleep. While thank­ful to be alive, two fam­i­lies and a 72 year old pen­sion­er are now home­less. Dam­age to house and house­hold ar­ti­cles are es­ti­mat­ed at over $800,000. The firede­stroyed a sev­en bed­room house at Al­tyre Dri­ve, Co­coyea Vil­lage, com­pris­ing of three apart­ments, around mid­night. Two cars were al­so burnt. Pen­sion­er Roze­nis Stephens, who lived alone up­stairs, said: "I was sleep­ing and be­tween sleep I feel a hot heat. When I wake up the ceil­ing was on fire. The place was in dark­ness be­cause there was plen­ty smoke.