3-Alarm Fire Exposes Pot Grow Operation In Oakland Warehouse
OAKLAND (CBS SF) -- Firefighters discovered over 100 marijuana plants when they were called to an early Saturday morning fire at a building on Oakland's old Auto Row.
Fire crews received the emergency call just after 4 a.m. When they arrived to the building at 3050 Broadway the blaze quickly grew from two to three alarms as they quickly began pouring water on it. Firefighters gained control about three hours later according to Oakland Fire Chief Mark Hoffman.
Battalion Chief Emon Usher was at the scene, when two ladder trucks were still dousing the warehouse that was still emitting quite a bit of smoke.
"We have flames at least 10 to 15 feet up in the air. The issue at that time was to protect the exposures. We weren't going to save this building,"
Usher said they could hear small explosions and pops and that there may be propane tanks or other flammables inside. He also said there was no signage that indicated what type of business it was at the location, but that it appeared to be a grocery outlet from the front, but what was in the back was a different story.
"The front of the building looked like food storage and at the rear of the building we discovered a growing operation for marijuana, so we have the Oakland Police Department investigating that," Usher said.
The marijuana grow may or may not be legal due to state law, but firefighters and investigators had yet to go inside as of 10 a.m. Usher said it would probably be 11 a.m. before they would be able to gain access. There is no word on the cause.
There were no reports of injuries.
(Copyright 2012 by CBS San Francisco and Bay City News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.)
