Chaos erupted early Monday morning as flames engulfed a storage facility in Fremont, incinerating over fifty units and prompting an ongoing investigation into the cause of the inferno, according to officials. Fremont Fire Department units were dispatched to the blaze at Extra Space Storage located at 38491 Fremont Boulevard, where they were met with "heavy fire through the roof of a two-story building with multiple storage units involved," the department commented on social media, as reported by CBS San Francisco.
Fighters of the flame managed to subdue the vicious fire within an hour after their arrival. Despite the challenging conditions, crews contained the fire in its originating building, but not before it succeeded in destroying 45 upper-level units and eight on the ground floor. KRON 4 News reported that following the fire, the affected building, designated as Building A, has been red-tagged by officials, signaling it's too dangerous for entry. This red tag means access to the 53 storage units within the condemned structure is strictly prohibited until further assessments are done by building and code enforcement authorities.
Despite the severity of the conflagration, no injuries have been reported, a stroke of fortune in an otherwise grim situation. In the aftermath, firefighters remained on the scene to deal with residual fire hazards, tackling "smoldering debris due to the large volume of content" contained in the decimated storage units, fire department officials shared, per information from KRON 4 News.
As for the occupants of the storage units, those individuals must now grapple with the loss of their stored possessions, the extent of which remains to be seen as the fire department wraps up its on-site operations. A complete investigation is underway into the cause of this disruptive blaze, with the fire department combing through the wreckage in search of clues that might illuminate how this catastrophe began. In the meantime, the Fremont Fire Department has called on those affected to get in touch as the subsequent clean-up and hazard assessment efforts continue.
