Source San Jose Mercury News, Calif.
Sept. 19--More than 100 firefighters from across the South Bay were battling a dangerous five-alarm fire at an old apartment complex in San Jose on Monday afternoon, a captain said.
No one was home in the seven-unit Victorian at 272 Washington St. in Japantown when the fire sparked at 4:30 p.m., Capt. Mary Gutierrez said. There were no injuries initially reported.
Because the structural members in the Victorian run vertically -- as opposed to horizontal materials in newer homes -- the fire spread in a chimney-like fashion across two floors, the basement and a top loft, Gutierrez said.
"We had fire at every level, and it was threatening the homes on either side," Gutierrez said, adding crews were able to prevent neighboring homes from catching fire. "There is a lot of fire in the attic and in the basement. There was even fire in the stairwell when they got in there."
Crews from neighboring fire agencies responded as firefighters tired to get a handle on the blaze, which was still burning an hour after it started, with flames visible through the roof.
"These are really, really tough technical fires to fight, they're very dangerous," she said. Firefighters "could step through the front door and fall through to the basement. A lot of firefighters die in these types of fires."
It's been a busy stretch for that neighborhood. The fire is just a few houses down the street and around the corner from where police detonated explosive materials
found in a man's Sixth Street home six days prior, requiring officers to cordon off the area for hours.
Contact Mike Rosenberg at 408-920-5705.
