Published on June 09, 2020
Menlo Park Fire Protection District
Three Fires in Three Hours
An Encampment Fire, Vegetation and Car Port Fire and a Structure Fire kept firefighters busy Thursday afternoon
Pictured above - Firefighter James Pickerrell with the Menlo Park Fire Protection District, works to extinguish a structure fire on Bell Street in East Palo Alto Thursday afternoon.
The detached studio fire displaced two occupants and Fire Investigators believe it was started by a malfunctioning refrigerator – Credit Menlo Fire
Short videos of both fires are available on request.
Menlo Park Firefighters were kept busy Thursday afternoon when three fires in three hours broke out. The first was an encampment fire in Menlo Park in an area known as the “Triangle” or the open space area bordered by Willow Road, Bayfront Expressway and University Avenue known to be the site of multiple encampments and problems. The second fire was a structure fire behind 847 Bell Street in East Palo Alto and the third was a reported grass fire that also burned a portion of an eight vehicle carport in East Palo Alto.
Fire #1
1:03 pm – Acting Battalion Chief Jason Martin is waved down by a man who points to smoke coming from an encampment fire behind the self-storage facility at 1520 Willow Road. The small encampment fire is quickly extinguished by personnel who arrive on three fire engines, a ladder truck and rescue company staffed by 15 firefighters. This is the second fire in this general location in the last week, fifth fire in the last month and almost 100th emergency incident in these encampments in the last three years. The fire is under investigation but is the third suspicious and potentially “set” fire in the last two weeks. Last week’s fire grew to ten acres and the smoke effects could be seen and felt for miles. All Fire response units were available and released by 1.46 pm.
Fire #2
2:00 pm – San Mateo County Public Safety Communications (PSC) receives a call reporting black smoke coming from a building behind a house located at 897 Bell Street in East Palo Alto. Menlo Engine 77 arrives on-scene at 2.03 pm and Captain Eggimann reports “a working structure fire in a 500 square foot studio style building behind the main house”. The fire crew aggressively cuts the fire off from spreading to the main residential structure. Two occupants escape the fire and it is brought under control at 2.23 pm. Fire Investigators determine the cause of the fire is a malfunctioning refrigerator. A total of five engines, a ladder truck and rescue company along with two Battalion Chiefs staffed by 24 firefighters gain complete control of the fire and are available by 3:16 pm. Estimated damages are $50k
Pictured Above - Menlo Park Captain Tony Eggimann (Center) throws debris out of the way as Firefighters prepare to enter and extinguish a fully involved detached Studio Unit in East Palo Alto Thursday – Credit Menlo Fire
Fire #3
3:39 pm - San Mateo County Public Safety Communications (PSC) receives a call reporting a grass fire in a field behind an apartment complex located at 1730 Bay Road in East Palo Alto. Police advise that the best access is from 791 Weeks Street. Menlo Engine 77 arrives on-scene on Weeks Street at 3:42 pm and advises that they have “a well involved two acre vegetation fire in an area almost completely surrounded by residential structures and apartment complexes”. Menlo Engine 5 with Captain Walter Vidosh arrives on-scene on the Bay Road side of the incident and radios “that the fire has spread into a bamboo stand and is now burning an eight vehicle car port located behind the Apartment complex”. Truck 2 with Acting Captain Brian Berger takes up a position on Carol Court and uses the 107 foot aerial ladder and a high pressure master stream of water to extinguish a palm tree that has started to smoke and threatens to spread embers throughout the area if it ignited.
Pictured above - Acting Captain Brian Berger on Menlo Truck 2 uses an aerial master stream, like an elevated sprinkler head in a building, to extinguish a smoldering palm tree that may have been ignited by fireworks – Credit Menlo Fire
A total of six fire engines, one ladder truck and rescue company along with two Battalion Chiefs, staffed by 27 firefighters, helped to bring the fire completely under control by 6:25 pm. Fire Investigators believe the cause of the fire may have been related to the illegal use of fireworks set off by juveniles. One of the Fire Districts drones was used to check for any hot spots using thermal imagining and to monitor the fires overall extinguishment, given that firefighters were working from three completely separate access points for this large vacant lot that once was used for green houses.
Pictured above - Acting Captain Brian Berger and Engineer Jason Puccinelli on Menlo Truck 2 use a wildland hose line to fully extinguish a two acre vegetation fire surrounded by
residential structures and apartment complexes in East Palo Alto Thursday afternoon – Credit Menlo Fire
Fire Chief Schapelhouman said “It’s been an interesting and challenging couple of weeks. As the number of COVID emergency medical response incidents has continued to drop dramatically, we almost immediately were confronted with a spike in the number of encampment fires. At the end of last week, we were pivoting to fully focus on resolving those long standing issues when all of our attention was needed to address potential protests, civil unrest, threats of looting, coordination with our law enforcement public safety partners, an increase of our daily staffing, strategically moving fire units and modifying our deployment, which had occupied all of our time. When our apparatus were randomly pelted with rocks during the end of Mondays late night protest while at an emergency call on Bay Road, that sadly helped me to make the decision to board up Fire Station 2 on Tuesday. However, with the overwhelming success of the curfew, more organized and community based peaceful protests, we unfortified our facilities today and we had essentially gone back to business as usual when we were very quickly reminded that not only was Fire Season here, but that the 4th of July is only one month out and unfortunately illegal fireworks will become increasingly more prevalent, disruptive and challenging, in the days and weeks ahead”.