Emeryville blaze scene secured for investigation
Developer suspects arson after 2nd fire destroys site
Drenching hot spots in a massive heap of twisted metal and debris, firefighters on Sunday secured the smoldering remains of an Emeryville construction project that burned to the ground over the weekend for the second time in less than a year.
Along with ensuring the fire doesn’t reignite and continue to threaten homes near the building site on the 3800 block of San Pablo Avenue near the Oakland border, crews worked to preserve the scene for investigators who set about looking into the origin and cause of the inferno.
But the suspicious fire, which started about 5 a.m. Saturday, has left little doubt for the project’s developer, who encountered the nearly identical situation on July 6, when the very same project burned to the ground in eerily similar circumstances.
“I think it’s arson — to me it just feels like it,” said Rick Holliday, president of Holliday Development.
Investigators were never certain of the cause of the July fire but speculated it may have been started by fireworks due because of the time of year, Holliday said. The latest fire has him rethinking that assessment.
Workers were just days away from putting the roof on the $35 million multistory housing and retail development project, and most of the complicated work with insurance companies and contractors was ironed out, he said.
Despite the aggravation of losing the project to fire twice in 10 months, Holliday found comfort knowing that no one was injured and that a damaged 80,000pound crane jutting out of the rubble was successfully brought down overnight with no trouble.
“We dropped that thing without any more damage,” he said Sunday. “Thank God it went absolutely perfectly.”
Residents in the everchanging neighborhood near the Highway 24 and Interstate 580 interchange and walking distance from the MacArthur BART Station stopped to stare at the scene throughout the day Sunday.
The fire was an unwelcome sight to many people already reeling from an unusual spate of destructive fires in the East Bay.
Residents were still talking about a fire just blocks away from the scene two weeks ago, when about 20 tents went up in flames in a homeless encampment under Interstate 580. In March, a fire at a halfway house on San Pablo Avenue in West Oakland killed four. And many around the Bay Area are still shocked and saddened by the Ghost Ship fire, which killed 36 partygoers at a converted warehouse in December.
“There’s been an awful lot of fires in the Oakland area,” Juliet Mevi said as she walked her dog past the scene. “If you don’t have fear of fire, you better now.”
She and others in the neighborhood joined in Holliday’s theory about how the fires started.
“This is intentional — no doubt,” she said. “I don’t know if this is a backlash to gentrification, but how could you not wonder? All I know is we’ve had these two massive fires at this same development.”
Valerie Jackson sipped her morning coffee looking through a fence barricade as smoke continued to seep from the rubble heap, giving off a sour stink of watersoaked charred lumber and melted building fragments.
“It’s crazy. It’s almost as if someone didn’t want it up,” she said. “It’s a little scary. Fires are dangerous.”
Residents in townhomes along Apgar Street on the eastern border of the fire were forced to evacuate when the fire exploded around 5 a.m. Saturday. Terry Manning lives across the street from the townhomes, where several units were still uninhabitable after the July fire.
“This makes all of us a little nervous,” he said while looking over the damage from just outside his front door. “This is so familiar. It’s exactly the way it looked last time. It makes us suspicions this time — that’s for sure.”
But identifying the cause of the fire won’t be fast or easy. Investigators with the Alameda County Fire Department were working alongside state fire officials and agents with the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
“Nothing has been ruled out, but it’s early to speculate on the cause,” said Aisha Knowles, a spokeswoman for the Alameda County Fire Department. “But it’s understandable why people are suspicious.”
While they waited until all fire threats were extinguished, investigators on Sunday began interviewing neighbors, businesses owners, firefighters and anyone else who might have information about how and when the fire started.
Investigators have also collected video surveillance footage from around the area as they piece together a timeline of how things unfolded.
City officials reopened San Pablo Avenue as crews from Pacific Gas and Electric Co. worked to restore power to the remaining residents and businesses still in the dark Sunday.