Santa Rosa House Fire Leads To Marijuana Grow Discovery
SANTA ROSA (CBS SF) -- Firefighters discovered a marijuana grow operation while battling a fire at a Santa Rosa residence Monday evening, fire officials said.
Santa Rosa firefighters responded to a reported fire at a one-story home in the 1300 block of Poplar Street at 6:36 p.m.
Black smoke was coming form the attic vents when firefighters arrived. Firefighters cut a hole in the roof to ventilate the structure and to release super heated gases and products of combustion from the building's interior, fire officials said.
The fire was contained to one bedroom in the front of the residence. Firefighters searched the house and found a small marijuana grow operation in the rear of the residence, fire officials said.
The residence was unoccupied at the time of the fire. The property owner was contacted and unable to produce written documentation that they or the tenants were allowed to have marijuana grown on the property, fire officials said.
Santa Rosa police confiscated the marijuana and removed it from the residence.
Damage to the house was $14,000 with an additional $1,000 of damage done to the contents of the house, fire officials said.
The cause of the fire remained under investigation.
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