While other Alamedans were enjoying 4th of July barbecues and chatting about the parade, plumes of smoke billowed in the air from two residential homes that caught fire on Sandalwood Isle off Otis Drive, near Alameda Hospital.
Alameda Fire Department (AFD) crews responded to a report of the structure fire at approximately 7:22 p.m., according to an AFD report on Facebook.
The firefighters arrived within minutes, according to a KTVU News report, but the fire spread extremely quickly. Crews “found a home involved in heavy fire while also spreading to a neighboring residence and threatening multiple others in the court,” the AFD report stated. KTVU News also posted a video of the fire, which AFD shared in its Facebook report.
Winds made the fire worse and increased the potential for it to spread, which created difficult conditions for the firefighters, according to the AFD report. Alameda fire crews received mutual aid support from multiple agencies. Hayward, Berkeley, Oakland, and Alameda County firefighters assisted with fire suppression and city coverage.
Firefighters succeeded in preventing further catastrophic damage to surrounding residences in the court and nearby areas.
“It was a challenging incident,” AFD Chief Nick Luby told KTVU. “It’s located on lagoons, so we could not get to all sides of the structure… but we were able to contain it to the two structures.”
One person was displaced from their home, according to the KTVU report. One of the two homes involved in the fire was currently being used as a short-term rental home, but it was unoccupied at the time. Two homes were destroyed and two additional homes suffered minor damage.
No injuries were reported. Firefighters were on the scene for just under twelve hours, according to the call record on PulsePoint. The cause of the fire is under investigation.
