Dozens of Firefighters Battle Massive Calif. Blaze
Source Times-Herald, Vallejo, Calif.
Feb. 05--About 50 firefighters fought a four-alarm fire in an abandoned Mare Island warehouse for more than two hours Sunday morning before bringing the massive blaze under control.
Vallejo Fire Chief Paige Meyer said the fire, which sent plumes of smoke hundreds of feet in the air -- and attracting hundreds of spectators, was reported at about 9:45 a.m. The city-owned warehouse building 655 on Railroad Avenue, formerly from the now-shuttered Mare Island Naval Shipyard, was empty and scheduled for demolition within six months to one year, Meyer said. The shipyard closed in 1996.
Firefighters from Napa, Solano and Contra Costa counties battled the blaze in the 150,000 square foot, four-story structure on the northern part of the island until about noon.
Hundreds of people who had come to the scene to watch
the massive fire were told by firefighters to stay at least a block away.
"We were worried about embers falling on people," Meyer explained.
The cause is under investigation, and no one was reported injured.
Copyright 2012 - Times-Herald, Vallejo, Calif.
