Preliminary Estimated Losses From This Morning’s Fire ‘May Exceed One Million Dollars’

Press release from Humboldt Bay Fire:

On Tuesday at 2:21 A.M. Humboldt Bay Fire was dispatched to a reported dumpster on fire at Fourth and A Streets. While responding, the Humboldt Bay Fire Dispatch Center received additional 911 calls and upgraded the dispatch to a full structure fire response. The first arriving unit found a large commercial occupancy at 26 West Fourth Street with heavy fire within the building and through the roof.

The first unit immediately requested a Commercial 2nd Alarm be dispatched, triggering additional units from Arcata Fire Protection District to respond. The first arriving Chief Officer arrived on scene and requested a 3rd Alarm, requesting a recall of off-duty Humboldt Bay Fire personnel and additional allied fire agencies.

On scene units set up for defensive operations in an attempt to stop the fire from spreading to adjoining structures. Crews were hindered by downed power lines near the structure, keeping resources from accessing the main body of fire. Prevailing north winds also increased the fire behavior, causing it to spread to the neighboring occupancy spaces.

At the height of the incident, there were three aerial ladder trucks flowing water on the fire, with multiple fire engines also flowing large hose streams. Additional mutual aid units were utilized to check the area for additional fires on nearby roof tops as large embers were falling several blocks downwind from the incident.

Four business occupancies were heavily damaged or destroyed by the fire, with two additional businesses sustaining smoke and water damage. Preliminary estimated losses may exceed one million dollars.

Humboldt Bay Fire continues to remain on scene throughout today to extinguish hot spots and for investigative purposes. The cause is under investigation at the time of this release. Anyone that has information to the cause of this fire is encouraged to contact Humboldt Bay Fire at (707) 441-4000.

Humboldt Bay Fire wants to thank its allied partners, Arcata Fire Protection District, Samoa Fire District, Fortuna Fire Department, Loleta Fire Department, the Eureka Police Department, the California Highway Patrol, Pacific Gas and Electric, Cal Trans, and the City of Eureka Public Works Department for their prompt response to assist in this major incident.

Facebooktwitterpinterestmail

Join the discussion! For rules visit: https://kymkemp.com/commenting-rules

Comments system how-to: https://wpdiscuz.com/community/postid/10599/

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

10 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Hum broseph
Guest
6 years ago

Wow! Looks like this effected the couple of businesses that colluded to remove the cannabis extraction company a few months back. Now their businesses have been removed! Funny how the universe dictates karma…

Shiney
Guest
Shiney
6 years ago
Reply to  Hum broseph

yep- Karma with a gas can and a match… in your universe

10 toes
Guest
10 toes
6 years ago
Reply to  Shiney

Bill

Truthy
Guest
6 years ago
Reply to  Hum broseph

Sickening how you think arson is funny.

M T
Guest
M T
6 years ago

Suspicious indeed. Especially due to the location. Who owns the buildings? Who would benefit with the loss and the use of insurance $$$ to build a new modern facility for processing cannabis? I am sure the insurance company will do their investigations into this with a fine tooth comb.

Sam
Guest
Sam
6 years ago
Reply to  M T

I believe the building changed hands earlier this year.

G-MAS
Guest
G-MAS
6 years ago

Geeze so sad.im sorry for the business’s. To many fires lately. I drove past the vet’s mem.building on Hst and people were up the stairs huddled around a little fire.it was dark. They had pulled apart the construction fence to get entry.its concrete with paint over it,but the paint burns!!

Liz
Guest
Liz
6 years ago

Do you know what the businesses are? I worked with Humboldt Counter Tops in that block on a project last year–good people doing very good work. I’m so sorry for anyone losing a livelihood.

LynnMae
Guest
LynnMae
6 years ago

John Chiv posted a link to the name of the company that now owns the property…no one local, a LLC, so don’t really know who the ‘owner’ is.
Two big fires on/near the waterfront is one too many to be coincidence, I think.
Angry tenants being forced to move might be blamed, but who really benefits?

Nina
Guest
Nina
6 years ago

I am not able to find an update as to the cause of the fire. I did, however, find some interesting history on the location.

Back in ’08, the County gave the Eureka Ice Company “just days to remove the anhydrous ammonia it uses to make ice from its waterfront building, or face millions in fines.”

Going back a year in ’07 the “California health inspector Amir Javed walked into Eureka Ice and Cold Storage in July 2007 to find flaking paint on the floor in the seafood and ice storage rooms. In his Food Activity Compliance Tracking Form, he noted that two large containers were placed along the middle of the wall of the warehouse to capture falling ice from the ceiling. In the bathroom he found “extremely dirty” cardboards that covered the floor. And the toilet was “encrusted with filth and human waste matter,” he wrote.

He noted that a third of the ice in the plant was for party ice that people buy in markets. But the company had failed to conduct a number of bacteriological chemical and physical tests on its finished ice on a regular basis, as required by state drinking water standards. As he noted, a manager at the plant told him that “[t]he firm has never conducted any of the tests listed above on its finished ice in the past.”