Safety & Health

Calif. Crews Unable to Kill Power, Find Grow House

July 4, 2014

"We learned power was rerouted and we had to wait for Southern California Edison to respond," San Bernardino Firefighter Mike Arvizo said.

Source San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.

July 03--SAN BERNARDINO -- Firefighters discovered thousands of marijuana plants inside a burning home Wednesday night while battling the blaze.

The fire broke out shortly after 10:15 p.m. at a home in the 100 block of south Newport Avenue, firefighter Mike Arvizo said.

"While fighting the fire we tried to shut the power down," Arvizo said. "But we learned power was rerouted and we had to wait for Southern California Edison to respond."

Power allegedly was bypassed by those operating the grow house, he said.

"There were marijuana plants growing in every room of the home," Arvizo said. " We kept the fire contained to just the garage but we couldn't put it out completely until SCE arrived to turn the power off."

Arvizo said that power was arcing making it unsafe for firefighters to fully extinguish the blaze.

Police said the suspects fled the home after the fire began.

"Over 3,000 plants were seized from inside the home which had been completely converted into a grow house," undercover officers said. "Every bedroom and the garage was filled with marijuana plants in varying stages of cultivation."

Both police and firefighters said the windows of the home were heavily barred.

Police do not have any suspects.

Anyone with information is asked to call police at 909-384-5742.