Massive construction site still smoldering one day after huge blaze
Federal ATF team on way to join the local investigation
EMERYVILLE — Investigators searched for clues, fire crews kept putting out small fires, and some residents returned to their homes Sunday after their evacuation amid a massive five-alarm fire at a construction site — more than 24 hours after the blaze started.
Small fires still smoldered into Sunday afternoon at the building in the 3800 block of San Pablo Avenue, Alameda County Fire spokeswoman Aisha Knowles said. The site, on the Emeryville-Oakland border, burned for the second time in 10 months; a six-alarm inferno tore through it in July. Nobody died in either fire.
Rick Holliday of Holliday Development, the company developing the construction site, did not return messages Sunday.
Oakland Battalion Chief Zoraida Diaz said Saturday that a national response team from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will join the investigation by the Alameda County and Oakland fire departments and that investigators will keep all possibilities open. It’s unknown whether Saturday’s blaze is related to the one in July.
Members of the federal ATF response team were en route to the scene Sunday.
Crews also used heavy equipment to remove a construction crane. The removal forced the evacuation of at least 35 residents from 15 apartments and condominiums in the nearby 3900 block of Adeline Street, Knowles said. An unspecified number of them were allowed to return by noon.
Power remained out in the area, and PG&E crews were on the scene trying to restore it. The agency said that at noon, about 221 customers were without electricity.
The massive blaze Saturday could be seen 80 blocks away and shut down neighboring streets overnight. Emeryville police announced around 9:30 a.m. Sunday that they had opened San Pablo Avenue and Adeline Street. At noon, MacArthur Boulevard remained closed going west from Market Street to San Pablo Avenue, as did 39th Street at Adeline.
Fire officials have not determined the point of origin. Diaz also said that cameras and security guards were at the construction site.
Almost 100 firefighters from Oakland and Alameda County battled the fire, from inside the burning structure and with aerial ladders on the outside. The firefighters were also assisted by drones operated by the Alameda County Sheriff’s Office.
In July’s fire, four townhouse units and an auto shop were destroyed, and tenants in at least 10 units were displaced. Holliday said then that he had never experienced a fire in his 35 years of developing.