A three-alarm fire destroyed an office building at 1050 N. Carpenter Road, north of Kansas Avenue early Sunday morning. The blaze gutted the building, which is home to about 22 businesses, including Love’s Safe Driving School, Nico’s Landscape Management, Farmers Insurance Group, De Vaney Business Services, and Weimer Chiropractic. The blaze caused at least $1 million in damage, said Modesto Fire investigator Doug Machado. The cause of the fire is under investigation. Witnesses said the fire appeared to have started on the south side of the building, said Machado.A 911 caller from the Burger King restaurant next door to the building reported the fire at midnight. It took 27 firefighters about one hour to get the blaze under control, said Modesto Fire Battalion Chief Mark Johansen. Two firefighters suffered strained neck and shoulder muscles. No other injuries were reported. Authorities believe the building was empty when the fire started.
The building’s basement was equipped with a sprinkler system, but authorities don’t know whether it was activated. Even if it did, it wouldn’t have made much difference, said Johansen. The fire made quick work of the 30-year-old wood building, he said. Selina Martinez, who works works at Ofelia Farms, one of the businesses in the building, said she got a call about the fire about 1:30 a.m. When she arrived at the one-story building, she saw flames “shooting out.” “It was scary, like a torch,” said Martinez. On Sunday afternoon, caution tape surrounded the blackened building. A few business owners stood in the parking lot. Some wanted to know whether they could go inside the building to see if anything was salvageable. Among them was Martha F. Ayala-Rivas, a legal assistant for immigration lawyer Kanwal Singh. She said Singh had 12 years of client files in his office, including original legal documents and birth certificates. Ayala-Rivas said she didn’t know whether the file cabinets were fire-proof. “Most of that stuff we didn’t have backed up, so that’s going to be tough,” said Ayala-Rivas. “I just hope there’s a way we can get to our clients.”
Story by: The Modesto Bee
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