Fire Shuts Down Public Parking Structure

By Jorge Casuso

February 23 -- A Downtown public parking structure was closed down after a suspicious fire gutted its two bathrooms Tuesday afternoon, Fire Department officials said.

Vehicles were being allowed to exit but not enter Structure 5 at 1440 4th Street Tuesday evening, as firefighters investigated the scene and waited for Edison crews to arrive, fire officials said.

“We’re treating it as an arson fire,” said Battalion Chief Carl Bjerke. “It has the makings of arson, but it’s under investigation.”

Firefighters were dispatched to the scene at 2:12 p.m. and had contained the fire inside the bathrooms in two hours, Bjerke said. “The fire was put out rather quickly,” he said.

But heat continued to generate from beyond a thick concrete wall, and it took time to locate the source of the smoke, which turned out to be small office, Bjerke said.

“It took a while to get to the rest of the fire,” he said. “It was a difficult area to get into. It was a hunt to find the tiny office in the bowels of the parking structure.

“It was feeling and finding and cutting,” Bjerke said. “That’s what took the longest.”

Inside the room, which had roll-up doors, magazines and papers were smoldering on metal shelves, Bjerke said.

Twenty firefighters in three engines, a truck and a rescue vehicle responded to the scene, fire officials said. A paramedic squad was also on the scene, though no injuries resulted from the fire.

After sundown, the units were still on the scene, Bjerke said.

“I don’t know how long that will last,” Bjerke said, referring to the structure’s closure.