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Mountain View fire officials believe the four-alarm Feb-27 fire, which displaced 50 residents of the Dana Garden apartments, was caused by “glowing ash from discarded smoking material.”
In a press release issued March 9, MVFD spokeswoman Jaime Garrett wrote that the fire caused about $1.5 million in damage to the apartment complex, located at 200 E. Dana St.
The fire in the two-story apartment complex began around 3:30 p.m. on Feb. 27, the department said.
No one was severely injured, in the fire, but one firefighter suffered minor injuries.
A video of the fire (in which a resident incorrectly posits that the fire was electrical in origin) can be viewed here.
A previous story on the fire can be read here.
Moving forward
The contractor in charge of repairing the damage caused by the fire said it will be “many months” before all of the units in building C — the block of apartments which was consumed by a the four-alarm blaze — will be inhabitable.
“There will be some significant demolition required,” said Jeff Farley, vice president of Four Star Cleaning and Restoration, the Fremont-based contractor hired to repair the damaged apartments.
None of the 26 units in building C are inhabitable right now, according Garrett said. The roof collapsed in many of the most-affected units. Seven of the 26 units in Building C have been red-tagged and 19 were yellow tagged — designations which indicate severe and moderate fire, water or smoke damage, respectively.
Farley said that his company will contend with many issues in the restoration process. In addition to damage caused by the fire, heat and smoke, there is also a great deal of water damage, which can result in wood rot and the growth of mold — which may emanate foul odors and, in some instances, may cause health issues.
“You can’t close anything back in with moisture in it,” Farley said.
this happened 2 days before i turned my paperwork in for an available unit on the bask side of the complex near 237 not building C, I went the next day but like I thought all available units were givin to tenants who lost apartments. Everything happens for a reason, so in essence this huge fire happened so I wouldnt move in. Thanks for the update Voice!
“glowing ash from discarded smoking material”
Sounds like a fancy way of saying an un-extinguished medical marijuana joint!
This never would have happened if smoking were banned.
Easy to say ashes caused the fire when there is nothing but ashes left.
Lets not jump to conclusions since this is only a belief and not actual fact.
PG&E ruled out as a suspect?
Discarded smoking material?
What about this equation:
High Tech Smart Meters + Old Wiring in a building = FIRE
The story is really sad and I hope the residents can find replacement housing asap. That said, its really funny how people with off topic axes to grind used this story to grind said ax.
Keeping score, we have someone opposed to medical marijuana, someone opposed to smoking, someone opposed to PG&E and finally someone opposed to Smart meters.
I’m surprised the anti off leach dog people and the anti high speed rail
folks haven’t chimed in yet…but there’s still time.
A dog off a leash must have knocked over an ash tray.
The fire was no doubt caused by property speculators looking to build a High Speed Rail parking garage on top of the charred ruins.
Time to require retrofitting apartments with fire sprinkler systems.Mayube even fire-sensing 911 auto-dialers.