$100,000 of Damage Done by Fire in Unoccupied Building on Broadway

Press release from Humboldt Bay Fire:Structure Fire feature icon

On October 14th, 2019 at 2:09AM, Humboldt Bay Fire responded to a Commercial Structure Fire at the 3500 block of Broadway.

Crews began fire attack from outside the building, and the main body of the fire was quickly knocked down. Crews then conducted a search of the interior of the building and found no humans or animals inside.

The fire was overhauled and the majority of the damage was to the rear exterior of the building and a small studio apartment above the rear side of the building. Estimated fire loss is $100,000.

Fire crews remained on scene for 3 hours to completely extinguish the fire and secure the building.

The building was unoccupied at the time of the fire and there were signs of transient activity near the origin of the fire. The cause of the fire is under investigation.

Humboldt Bay Fire would like to thank EPD, HCSO, PG&E, City Ambulance and Arcata Fire District for their assistance.

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41 Comments
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Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
4 years ago

“there were signs of transient activity near the origin of the fire” seems to be the #1 cause of Humboldt fires, but everyone refuses to hold them accountable in any way.

Do random middle-of-the-night raids on every property that appears to have trespassers. Put them somewhere where they won’t have access to fire-starting materials.

onlooker
Guest
onlooker
4 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

Pay more taxes, then! Or here’s an idea: provide a safe shelter for those unfortunate enough to be homeless, foodless, cold and unable to access basic toilet, shower and washing needs.

Central HumCo
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  onlooker

“Pay more taxes”.

~why didn’t i think of that?

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
4 years ago
Reply to  Central HumCo

It would be a lot cheaper to lock them up than to let them keep burning buildings down, starting wildfires, stealing from vehicles, stealing from houses, stealing from businesses, abusing emergency room services, stealing bicycles, dumping trash everywhere, getting themselves killed on highways, vandalizing public bathrooms, vandalizing businesses, needing to be revived every time they overdose, shoplifting, stabbing people who are delusional enough to think they can help them, spending tax money on drugs, leaving taxpayer-funded syringes all over eureka, tying up our legal system just to get more probation, creating mounds of garbage that need loaders to remove, leaving biohazards on sidewalks, etc etc etc.

We’re already paying the taxes – it’s just going to cleaning up after them rather than to dealing with the problem. And spending the same money on actually dealing with the problem would have a chance of a long-term solution, that benefits them as well as society, while cleaning up after them just ensures nothing will ever change.

Willie Caos-mayham
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

🕯🌳Were are you going to put them,feed them,cloth them,meet there mental and medical needs? More taxes? More,more,more, but nothing gets done. Just more money in someone’s pocket that’s not doing nothing to solve the problem. 🇺🇸🖖

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
4 years ago

My point was it would be LESS, not more.

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

If there weren’t so many vacant buildings around, they wouldn’t become occupied by drug addicts and squatters starting fires. A combination of a more active economy and liability for leaving building vacant might help.

I wonder if this is not both a result of the online shopping boom and an opportunity to create cheaper housing. The change in the economy is leaving lots of places derelict. Living on Broadway would not be ideal but, if there were incentives to create extremely basic, low cost housing where the regulations were not so burdensome about evicting tenants if the place was subsequently sold for commercial activity, it might offer an opportunity to help with the general deterioration in the area. A sort of “temporary housing zone” where it does not create a mess of lawsuits and regulation to change from commercial to housing or vice versa. Flip it or flop it.

Good job to those who put out the fire
Guest
Good job to those who put out the fire
4 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Guest,
wonderfully said.

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
4 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Building owners are the victims, not the problem. Blaming building owners for letting their buildings get burned is like blaming vehicle owners for letting their windows get smashed, or blaming women for getting raped because they showed their ankles, or whatever stupid victim-blaming crap you want to use as an analogy because I can’t think of a better one. Hopefully the building owner has insurance that will cover the damage done to their property.

Realwood
Guest
Realwood
4 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

Bushytails nails it!

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
4 years ago
Reply to  onlooker

“unfortunate” implies it has something to do with fortune, rather than their own decisions.

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

Like many things, a small percetage of truely unfortunate stories becomes a massively exaggerated scenario to cover all with excuses. A person with a serious mental illness, unable to control their behavior, might look similar to a person who simply finds normal responsibility burdensome and wouldn’t keep themselves sober and clean if given the facilities a silver platter.

Government Cheese
Guest
Government Cheese
4 years ago
Reply to  onlooker

Life choices are unfortunate. Or fortunate. Wonder how many many of those homeless went the route of drugs n alcohol over trying to better themselves before they were left out in the cold? Plenty of help wanted signs all over town! But hey, why work when someone else can do it for you. I love seeing 20 year old bums lined up at the free stuff van in garberville every week. Food, shelter, free needles, clothes. Guess what humboldt? that’s where YOUR tax dollars are going! 75% of all taxes in humboldt go to welfare programs! So yes, I’m doing my part to feed the homeless! Or as I call them, Social Parasites.

Sinbad of Sohum
Guest
Sinbad of Sohum
4 years ago

There is so much less room for error these days. Many people are struggling. Its the corporate take over of most industry and the death of the independent livelihood that’s a factor.

Independent livelihood and mom and pops tend to keep the power with the people, not the corporations.

Good job to those who put out the fire
Guest
Good job to those who put out the fire
4 years ago

Sinbad,
good comment, right on. Those homeless, people have disdain for could be most of us if the power were cut for a couple months.

Bug on a Windshield
Guest
Bug on a Windshield
4 years ago
Reply to  onlooker

“Pay more taxes”. Humph. Sounds like a city official looking for a raise or bonus.

Martin
Guest
Martin
4 years ago
Reply to  onlooker

You pay for the damages to the building and for all the firefighters, police officer’s and other called to that fire. It has been set on fire before, and I am certain it is a druggy or homeless person.

Wes Shamblin
Guest
Wes Shamblin
4 years ago
Reply to  onlooker

Spare me the sob story. If they don’t want to give up drugs/alcohol, take a shower and groom themselves, it is a chosen lifestyle. Why should taxpayers and enablers have to pony up?

Doggo the commie
Guest
Doggo the commie
4 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

Says a person with their own roof and a door that locks.
The definition of entitled

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
4 years ago

Entitled is expecting someone else to give you things, not working hard for them.

Doggo the commie
Guest
Doggo the commie
4 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

en·ti·tled
/inˈtīdld,enˈtīdld/
Learn to pronounce
adjective
believing oneself to be inherently deserving of privileges or special treatment.
“kids who feel so entitled and think the world will revolve around them”

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
4 years ago

Yep, you used a dictionary, and it says the exact opposite of what you said.

Government Cheese
Guest
Government Cheese
4 years ago
Reply to  Bushytails

Don’t worry bushytails, the land of opportunity will soon be replaced with the land of the enabled. Those who have less will spit on you and call you entitled and a racist capitalist pig, all the while asking you for a free handout. Welcome to California, where you bite the hand that feeds you.

Bug on a Windshield
Guest
Bug on a Windshield
4 years ago

I work my @$$ off just to rent a roof and a locking door and keep from dropping below the top tier of the poverty level. Not enough to get ahead or buy private insurance, but, too much to get free insurance or other social handouts. But hey, I got a roof and door. Woo hoo. I’m entitled . . . to what?

Guest
Guest
Guest
4 years ago

I’ve heard too many stories from people where their noses were all bent out of shape by employers demanding they show up for work when they don’t feel like it or that they feel were treated “unfairly” because they didn’t get what “everyone else” did or they simply would blame everyone else for their screw ups to believe every sad situation was a result of misfortune. The capacity of feeling abused by very ordinary things is huge for some people who coincidently also make up excuses about how it’s never their fault.

No one should ever lay guilt on others because there are people who behave stupidly and won’t take responsibility for it. Through sheer practice at offering self serving stories, they have the techinique down pat. If such people could be identified, then there might actually be the resources to better help the much smaller group of those physically or mentally incapacitated. The determined dysfunctional are always going to be a trouble.

Central HumCo
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Guest

“The determined dysfunctional . .”

~then, there’s those.

By Jove, i do believe we have a winning phrase for the politically correct… “the determined dysfunctional”. I like it :-O

Martin
Guest
Martin
4 years ago

Who are you talking to Dog?

sam
Guest
sam
4 years ago

3500 block of Broadway.
Is this the old Boiler Room building?

Craig
Guest
Craig
4 years ago
Reply to  sam

Yes, and the old Ricos bar.

sam
Guest
sam
4 years ago
Reply to  sam

I drove over there and Yes, the old Boiler Room building.

Me
Guest
Me
4 years ago

Take a homeless person home with you!

JustWantToHeartheEndoftheStory
Guest
JustWantToHeartheEndoftheStory
4 years ago
Reply to  Me

thank you! That occurs to me whenever the “advocates” for the homeless go on and on about how the taxpayer should pay for the care and support of those who will not work, who refuse housing (and yes, they do) who spend their days making life unpleasant for those of us who labor for our keep. If the homeless population is full of fantastic lost souls, take them into your own home. Please, have three, four, hanging out at your house. See why they are homeless….

Willie Caos-mayham
Guest
4 years ago

🕯🌳Hey how about everyone go out and do something really great and take in one of those homeless people you see on the streets and put one of them up in your house.
Just think you’d be doing something for the city,you won’t be stressing out over that homeless thing anymore. You know making all those wild speculations about them,this way you get to see them first hand and up close and not play arm chair mental specialist. 🖖

Central HumCo
Guest
4 years ago

~i have. Three rimes. And you know what? They get jumpy and can’t wait to get back to Eureka. Gotta be culture shock going from city hustle-n-bustle, to stone silence in the middle of a forest, under a canopy. They can’t handle it.

Good job to those who put out the fire
Guest
Good job to those who put out the fire
4 years ago

Thanks.

Bushytails
Guest
Bushytails
4 years ago

What a good plan! They can shit in our microwaves too!

Good fire department
Guest
Good fire department
4 years ago

That’s in an empty building with no power. Imagine what would have happened if the county power was off and there was no electricity to pump the water to put the fire out.

Jeffersonian
Guest
Jeffersonian
4 years ago

The transients at work raising your taxes in order to clean up their messes, but do the politicians care. Nope, they are afraid to take a tough political stance for fear of losing the bleeding heart vote. So they vote more taxes to care for them. And the problem is not solved.

Willie Caos-mayham
Guest
4 years ago
Reply to  Jeffersonian

🕯🌳Society will have to care for them one way or another or one party or the other. 🇺🇸

Government Cheese
Guest
Government Cheese
4 years ago

Oakland (sanctioned city) bought hundreds of “junior barns” for the homeless and put them on government property. They burned them all within a year to keep warm. You can lead a horse to water……

john shelter
Guest
john shelter
4 years ago

if new direction was in that abandoned building there would have been no fire from a possible homeless person. new directions took over the abandoned Jacobs school and nullified all negative activities. New directions has been able to provide new type of security while providing housing for our homeless trainees