FLAMES GUT BURBANK HOUSING OFFICE
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Fire tore through the Santa Rosa offices of Sonoma County's most prominent nonprofit housing developer early Monday, causing damage that authorities estimated would reach beyond $500,000. Three other tenants of the Mendocino Avenue building were also displaced by the fire, which appeared to have started in one of four second-floor offices occupied by the Burbank Housing Development Corp. The cause was under investigation, but appeared accidental, authorities said.
``There'll be a lot of cleanup, but I think everyone's glad there was no one in the building at the time,'' said Mike Mortensson, executive director of the California Groundwater Association. The association's headquarters on the second-floor was destroyed.
There were no injuries, although large sections of the two-story building's ceramic tile roof collapsed while firefighters battled the blaze, Santa Rosa Fire Battalion Chief Jack Piccinini said.
Burbank, which since 1980 has developed about 2,000 units of affordable housing in Sonoma County, also occupies another building in the complex of four, and its operations won't be severely affected, said Nick Stewart, the group's deputy executive director.
``The Fire Department did just a fantastic job,'' he said. ``They protected most of our equipment and files both upstairs and downstairs.''
Much of the burned building, which did not have fire sprinklers, will need to be completely rebuilt, said Santa Rosa Fire Battalion Chief Mark Basque, standing Monday morning outside the Burbank office where the fire appeared to have sparked to life. Around the wood-framed, plywood-sided building, clumps of fire suppressant foam lingered like patches of melting snow. Fire inspectors picked through the sodden black mess of charred ceiling beams, insulation and office furniture piled high just inside the doorway. Through the collapsed roof, a clear blue sky and the white panels of an enormous plastic tarpaulin sheathing construction work across the street at the Kaiser Permanente Medical Center were visible.
Security guards at the hospital reported the blaze at 2:24 a.m., Santa Rosa Fire Battalion Chief Jack Piccinini said. By 2:30 a.m. when the first of eight fire engines and two firetrucks arrived at the two-alarm blaze, flames were climbing out of the roof and through the building's east-facing second-floor wall, he said.
An attorney and a publishing firm also had offices in the building. The building, held in a private family trust, is managed by Sierra West Property Management. A representative of Sierra West said all tenants will be offered temporary space.
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT, page: B1
BYLINE: JEREMY HAY |
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Published on November 30, 2004
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