Sheriff Honsal and The City of Arcata Declare Local Emergencies Due to Impacts from Friday’s $18 Million Fire
Overhead shot of the area devastated by fire Friday. [Photo from Erin Scofield]
Buildings before they were reduced to rubble. [Photo by Mark McKenna]
Video by Erin Scofield.
The City said that initial assessments indicate that all businesses and residences on the south side of the 800 block of Tenth Street were a total loss, while several adjacent buildings hadsmoke and heat damage. City officials said at least one affected business stored significant quantities of painting and industrial materials, increasing the risk of environmental contamination—an issue compounded by ongoing storms and stormwater runoff.
Lights from the ladder truck on Friday helped heavy equipment operators direct their work. [Photo by Mark McKenna]
HCSO goes on to state, “Runoff may cause impacts to environmental resources, including storm drains, nearby waterways, neighboring properties and water quality, with possible downstream impacts to aquaculture operations, fisheries and sensitive aquatic habitats.”
Water spraying over the rubble on Friday night. [Photo posted by a commenter]
The Sheriff’s Department said, “Individuals who experienced fire damage to their home or business are strongly encouraged to work with their insurance provider(s) to file a claim for repairs. This emergency proclamation does not guarantee individual or financial assistance for damages incurred during the fire.”
City officials said required notifications have been made to a wide range of local, regional, state, and federal environmental and regulatory agencies, including those overseeing water quality, hazardous materials, wildlife protection, and emergency management. Coordination with those agencies is ongoing as efforts continue.
Arcata police and fire personnel work in coordination to deal with the fire.[Photos by Ryan Hutson]
The cause of the fire remains under investigation by the Arcata Fire District, working in coordination with Arcata Police and the Humboldt County Fire-Arson Investigation Team. Anyone with information related to the fire is encouraged to contact Arcata Fire District at (707) 825-2000 or the Arcata Police Department Investigations Unit at (707) 822-2424.
Earlier:
- Fully Involved Structure Fire at 823 10th Street in Arcata
- Wind-Driven Fire Destroys Multiple Downtown Arcata Buildings Nearly 25 Years After Previous Fire in the Same Area
- Arcata Fire District Releases Details on Estimated $18 Million Blaze That Destroyed Multiple Businesses
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There are still so many fundraisers going on, one in particular is for some of the tenants of that building who moved in that morning and had all their belongings in boxes. Please support if you can and reach out to the other causes of this tragic event.
gofund.me/980195c8b
Recall when Marino’s burned in the 90s? With it went the Northcoast Environmental Center (N.E.C.) and a neighboring building that had hazardous materials. That spot still hasn’t been built on due to it remaining, I believe, a toxic site.
It burned the Summer of 2001.
I had just moved here the day before (I swear I had nothing to do with it.)
The site has since been redeveloped.
The site is still vacant. It was a former dry cleaners that is an open cleanup case. Just like the corner of 10th and H.
I walked by 10th and H every day on my way to the bus for a couple years, while a huge set of industrial scrubbers funded by the EPA worked around the clock to clean up the old drycleaner there. In fact you can still see all the weird machines in the google street view pic of the spot. They wrapped up a year or so ago I think. Probably would have been much worse if they had not done their job so well.
Right where the scrubbers were is where the first pictures of flames in that building were the other day. The old cleaners may have been vacant still, but smoke was probably less toxic because of the big EPA machines.
It takes forever and a day to clean up after things like dry cleaners, in part due to chemicals leeching and creating plumes under and away from the original building. The soils around the long-gone Norman’s dry cleaners in Eureka are still being tested. Also it’s why nothing has been built on the lot in years.
Kym posted a link to the NCJ story about it in another article.
https://www.northcoastjournal.com/080201/cover0802.html
Yes- that empty lot is still too toxic to be built on. Didn’t it used to be a paint store? Ya think Hensels Paint Store site will become another brownfield in our downtown? Maybe we can cover it with astroturf and let the bums sleep there…
Curious if this fire will spur the discussion about whether Arcata FD is ready for an emergency like this at the new dorms and buildings from CPH, plus the new construction at the bottoms.
AFD needs to join the Humboldt Bay Fire District.
Outside the AFD domain is where all the ‘big iron’ came from anyway.
When CPH proposed the forms, arcata fire told them they didn’t have the infrastructure to fight a building that tall. CPH built it anyways. Shame on that school. Same thing is happening with that parking structure being proposed, the environmental impact report says it bad and does not decrease emissions. CPH will build it anyways.
The 19th century called and said you need to calm tf down about the 21st century building. lol
Maybe CPH can pitch in and help buy the equipment needed.
The new dorms are built out of concrete (not highly flammable redwood) and have fire sprinklers. Plus the BSS building is just as tall
It seemed like the buildings were still structurally sound until they were crumbled with the excavators to a pile of rubble.
No, they weren’t. The facades were compromised and were going to fall, and determination was made they could injure people, start more fires as they fell releasing more embers to the neighboring buildings.
Before the bulldozers, there were flames pouring out of all the windows of Northtown books and the building next door was burned through – not structurally sound at all. The tore the top off of Northtown to get to fire inside.
If you had been there you would know that the buildings were not structurally sound; they were burned out. When the excavator started pulling down Northtown, there was fire inside the facade even though it didn’t look like it from the outside. The roofs collapsed, the walls were burning; there was nothing to save. All they could do was keep the damage contained and knock it down before it fell down.
I honestly can’t understand why some folks are trying to make this worse than it already is.
The direct loss was estimated to be at 18 million. That is a drop in the bucket (to make a pun) compared to the damage to the water from fire runoff. The fish and oysters will have to be tested for a while. Smoke and heat damage to vehicles, Buildings and other property will be a factor.
The solution to pollution is dilution. It will take a long time to dilute this disaster.
“Sadness flies away on the wings of time” Jean de La Fontaine
Spreading rapidly due to strong winds…”
It’s interesting to observe how by Day 3, there’s zero mention of the gas main rupture
that first responders and reporters admitted was feeding the blaze!
Day 1: Firefighters on scene call out the gas main as “feeding the fire.”
Day 2: It’s a logistics note “PG&E crimped a line during ops.”
Day 3: Poof. Not even a footnote. Suddenly it’s just “wind.”
If a half a city block has been flattened I hardly think the public will go along with memory-holing the part where an active natural gas line was burning while PG&E dug with an excavator to shut down that line.
Is the goal safety and clarity , or managing PR fallout?
Winds can accelerate a fire’s spread, sure , but they don’t ignite painting supply stockpiles and cause massive sky high heat plumes felt from a block away on their own.
Brushing it off as “just the wind” erases the very real and REPORTED role of delayed utility shutoff. Gas was visibly feeding the fire, that’s a preventable hazard not an act of nature.
Ignoring that fact in how this story is told moving forward, means we learned nothing from the San Bruno disaster, and that our leadership is willing to manipulate the narrative (LIE) to prevent affected individuals from holding the right parties accountable.
Wow.
For context chat bot compares San Bruno disaster to arcata :
Why the San Bruno comparison is validSan Bruno (2010):
Arcata (2026):
Common thread:
Wind accelerates fires.
Unstopped gas feeds them.
More importantly, what is TRG?
I very much suspect it’s Fan of TRG’s original account.
The similarities in their incredibly long-winded comments are striking.
Sure came to that “estimation” guess of 18 million real fast. Would love seeing that breakdown
Kind of hard to discern a cause when you tore down/removed all the evidence! Reminds me of 9/11. “Nothing to see here folks, move along ” Based on my decades of experience living in Humboldt I would Sherlock that a landlord is to blame, but this will be covered up by the People’s Republic of Arcata and the yokel sheriff.
Why on earth would the city of Arcata and the sheriff, who have to deal with a lot of this disaster, cover for the criminal who caused it?? Please, I’m desperate to know their motives.
I sense a new opportunity for the ‘concrete people’.
Envision… a 10 story concrete ‘Brutalist-Stalinist’ barracks.
Tiny grim windows dotting the sides… with contrasting black painted metal screens.
Outside… dark grey concrete to match our skies.
Security lights glistening off the rain-slick streets.
Bottom story… a massive work-bus terminal.
No wait… darn-it… that’s going on in Eureka !
That sounds dark and awful; I’m glad I don’t live in your world.
You are causing this world.
Proposed Eka ‘People Barracks’.
Whatever ‘redevelopment’ happens on this block in the future, I hope they keep the “small town store front’ charm! They can make two levels of parking under the block, and build something great, but I’d like it to look like little store fronts like before.
Youch. This is like getting hit by a 7.0 earthquake. So fortunate that nobody was hurt. Arcata has been through this before though – this may be bigger but the old Marino’s-NEC office fire (former dry-cleaning business with some serious toxins in the soil) and another fire at what used to be Casa De Que Pasa restaurant (that didn’t destroy the whole building like this did but it was significant). They got rebuilt and so will these buildings. Rebuilding provides an opportunity to re-think and upgrade the design and layout – look at a multi-story layout with rooftop patios, gardens, solar panels. I hope they have enough insurance to re-build.