Fire Destroys West San José Apartments

On Thursday, March 20, 2008 at 5:00 p.m., units of the San José Fire Department were dispatched to 7200 Bollinger Road on the city's west side for multiple reports of heavy smoke from a two-story, multi-unit, residential structure.

Upon their arrival firefighters discovered two second floor units fully involved in fire and immediately struck a second-alarm. It took firefighters over an hour to completely extinguish the flames which left several residents homeless and one man with injuries.

San José firefighters, assisted by units of the Santa Clara County Fire Department, were able to prevent the fire from spreading throughout the building, but several other apartment units did suffer smoke and water damage.

Submitted by: SJFD Photographer, Craig Allyn Rose

Vacant IBM Building Destroyed by Fire

When a passerby stopped at San José Fire Station 35 at around 1:30 AM on Saturday, March 8, 2008 to alert Captain Trent Engler and his C-Shift crew of a fire on the old IBM property, Engler and his firefighters departed their station to find a massive column of smoke and fire coming from the center of the abandoned 69,000 square foot structure.

Captain Engler immediately requested a second-alarm to bolster the full-first alarm that had already been struck. A third-alarm was then struck some 15 minutes later due to access difficulties and a lack of immediately available water. Crews were forced to extend extremely long hose lays to supply the multiple hand lines, master streams, and portable monitors that were placed into service.

Over 80 firefighters battled the blaze for several hours before the majority of the flames were doused. The complex itself was the subject of some dispute after historical preservationists suggested the buildings be saved due to their association with early advances in information storage technology and the unique architectural design by John Bolles.

Two firefighters received minor sprains, and the cause of the blaze remains under investigation.

Submitted by: SJFD Photographer, Craig Allyn Rose

Four-Alarm Fire Consumes Vacant Warehouse

On Sunday, February 3, 2008 at 10:30 PM, units of the San José Fire Department responded to reports of a fire in a large commercial structure at 686 North King Road in an industrial area of the city.

Upon their arrival, crews quickly called for additional resources and established a defensive operation under the direction of Battalion Chiefs Jose Guerrero (Incident Commander), Kevin Conant (Operations), Stewart McGehee, Gary Weekley, Robert Sapien (Safety) and additional chief officers from CAL FIRE and the Gilroy Fire Department.

Firefighters were able to quickly determine that the structure was unoccupied, with a well-advanced fire that required the immediate establishment of a defensive operation including the deployment of five truck companies, each flowing their elevated master streams.

Over 60 firefighters worked for several hours to bring the blaze under control while protecting adjacent exposures from igniting. The cause of the blaze is currently under investigation and there were no reports of injuries.

Submitted by: SJFD Photographer, Craig Allyn Rose

Fire Destroys DowntownBuilding Under Renovation

At approximately 2 a.m., Thursday, January 17, 2008 units of the San José Fire Department responded to a report of smoke in a building at 89 South First Street in the heart of downtown San José.

Upon reaching the scene firefighters were confronted with a two-story historic structure well-involved with heavy fire showing. With flames leaping over 40 feet into the air firefighters under the direction of Battalion Chiefs Kevin Conant, Cliff Hubbard, and Stewart McGehee immediately transitioned to a defensive operation to protect adjacent structures.

Firefighters were able to successfully prevent the flames from spreading to neighboring structures, but the fire completely destroyed the 19,000 square foot masonry building. The structure, known as the Porter Stock Building, was constructed in 1867.

There were no injuries reported and the cause of the fire remains under investigation.

Submitted by: SJFD Photographer, Craig Allyn Rose

Golden Guardian Comes to San Jose

First responders from multiple agencies, including the San Jose Fire Department, descended upon San Jose's Municipal Stadium for the Golden Guardian 2007 bioterrorism drill held on Wednesday, November 14.

The scenario required interagency cooperation to contend with a mock terrorist attack on a music festival using airborne pneumonic plague. San Jose Fire units, directed by Deputy Incident Commander Kevin Conant, initiated a full-scale response using the National Incident Management System (NIMS) to manage all aspects of the drill. Firefighters from San Jose Stations 1 and 29 worked with firefighters from Santa Clara County, Mountain View, Gilroy, CAL FIRE, and medical personnel from American Medical Response, Silicon Valley Ambulance, and the Santa Clara County EMS Agency.

The primary goal of the exercise was to deploy multiple resources on a single mass casualty incident to determine overall readiness and agency interoperability. Several hundred volunteers played the part of concert goers, all needing some level of assistance ranging from immediate medical attention, evacuation, and emergency medication.

Submitted by: SJFD Photographer, Craig Allyn Rose

Four-Alarm Fire DestroysHistoric San Jose Home

On Thursday, July 19, 2007 the City of San Jose lost one of its most historic homes to an early morning fire. Just before 4:00 a.m. the San Jose Firefighters responded to reports of a blaze in a vacant two-story Victorian structure at 156 East St. John Street in downtown San Jose.

Upon arrival Firefighters were up against intense fire conditions with flames erupting from the basement and blowing through the roof. Incident Commander Jim Stunkel (Battalion 1B) immediately declared a defensive operation as the roof caved in and the back exterior wall of the structure collapsed. Flames spread into the adjacent structure's attic. Without delay Firefighters quickly extinguished and saved that structure from further damage.

Constructed in 1881 the building served as the home of former San Jose Mayor Sherman Houghton, and his wife Eliza Donner Houghton. Eliza was a survivor of the legendary Donner Party. The building was placed on the National Register of Historic Places in 2002.

Posted by: CA Craig Schwinge SJFD PIO
Submitted by: CA Alberto Olmos E26B

Red Flag Warning Firefighters on Patrol

The National Weather Service has upgraded a fire weather watch that was issued for the Bay Area this morning into a red flag warning today due to the increased chance of dry lightning.

Normally, precipitation would put out any sparks from lighting during a storm. Dry lightning, strikes without any accompanying rain, usually in the hills or mountains. Several major fires still burning in California were caused by dry lightning.

Dry lightning strikes occur when the air next to the ground is very dry and the bottoms of thunderstorms are more than 10,000 feet above the ground, which causes the rain falling from the storms to evaporate before it hits the ground.

As a precaution, the San Jose Fire Department has staffed extra personnel and equipment to patrol critical fire areas in the East Foothills and Almaden Hills. These Firefighters will be patrolling from 10am to 10pm today and possibly tomorrow depending on the weather conditions.


Posted by: Captain, Alberto Olmos, Public Information Officer
Submitted by: Captain, Curtis Jacobson, San Jose Fire Department