My daughter’s stay at an Airbnb in San Leandro abruptly ended just two days ago. She’s young, working a summer internship in Oakland. The Airbnb was very expensive and run by a couple. One is a professor at a major university the other is an executive with a pharmaceutical company. They were good people, and it was a safe place just minutes from her job. She’s been staying there about six weeks.

On Sunday night she arrived there about 7:30 PM. The house was quiet. She didn’t see the hosts. She went upstairs to her room. About two hours later she heard shrieking, screaming, thumps, breaking glass, and someone saying he wanted to kill another person. It was a big fight. She called me and I told her to stay in the locked room. Within minutes she said it had gotten quiet; in next breath she says she heard sirens, then pounding, then she smelled smoke.

She went into the hallway and smelled natural gas. She headed to the front door and opened it to find the fire department, police, and ambulances. She went outside and they all went in. She was in her sleep shorts and a sweatshirt. Barefoot. The cops couldn’t find the hosts. They looked all over and finally found them in the backyard. One guy was wrapped up like a burrito, strapped to a gurney, and taken away in the ambulance. A paramedic told her he has a lot of stuff going on and he is going to the hospital to talk to someone about it. The cops took pictures and a statement from the other guy. He’s battered and bruised.

From what she learned from the cops, one of the guys turned the gas on the stove to flood the house then went to another location and started a fire. The cops told her she shouldn’t stay there anymore. Now she’s pretty much living in her car. Last night’s hotel bill was $55 for the only safe place available in Oakland.