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Displaced Residents Prepare Damaged Homes For Coming Storm

ROSEVILLE (CBS13) - Some Roseville families are trying to get ahead of Monday's storm as their rooftops were damaged on Friday after a huge fire started in nearby Maidu Park.

Meanwhile, some are now wondering if the city did enough to keep the fire from starting in the first place.

"The house stinks and smells. It's a mess but we're so lucky," said Elsa Marie Wyberreta.

She and her husband David are one of four families displaced after a fire ripped through their homes near Maidu Park Friday.

Arson investigators are trying to determine if the suspicious fire was man-made, looking into the possibly children playing with fire may have caused it. One thing investigators do know is it sparked in the park and quickly jumped to nearby homes.

"The fire jumped kind of like length wise and then it jumped from a tree over to our roof," said Elsa.

All four homes with damage had shake roofs.

David grabbed a water hose and fortunately was able to save his rooftop.

"Lucky we were home. If we hadn't been home everything probably would have gone up. We would have lost it," said Elsa.

Their neighbors however were not so lucky. With two days of rain forecasted for Monday and Tuesday, the other three families are now doing a quick patch work using plastic tarps.

"This is exactly what we thought would happen and it happened," said Elsa.

She wishes the city took more time to clear the dry brush in the park.

"If those trees wouldn't had been there, if people may have cut the weeds, maybe had not been so bad," she said.

Fortunately no one was injured.

"We're alive and we're all good," said Elsa.

Roseville city officials told CBS13 that they have an aggressive weed abatement program, but are not sure if Maidu Park had been cleared out recently.

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