Caught on video: Explosions & collapse at 5-alarm San Jose, CA warehouse fire.
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A San Jose warehouse burst into flames early Thursday, causing multiple explosions, smoke and billowing fire, and a roof to collapse during massive firefighting efforts.
San Jose Fire Capt. Barry Ehlers said the warehouse fire escalated into five alarms just after 7 a.m. The blaze was first reported about 5:30 a.m. at 1325 Julian Street near 28th Street.
Firefighters contained the blaze just before 8:45 a.m. Fire crews from Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and Mountain View assisted San Jose in battling the blaze.
San Jose fire Capt. Cleo Doss said the first crews arrived at 5:43 a.m. He described the warehouse as a roughly 125,000-square-foot building that houses multiple companies in four or five connected buildings.
Fire Capt. Barry Ehlers said the owner had repeatedly built on additions to the original building.
A part of the building that collapsed is marked with a sign that says “Dave’s Hay Barn.” A sign on another part of the building says “Vintage Roof Tile.”
Ehlers said the fire was reported by two Vintage Roof Tile employees this morning. Both workers got out of the building safely.
The employees told firefighters that there were tanks inside the building that contained propane to fuel forklifts, and Ehlers said that may explain why a number of explosions were heard while the fire was burning.
Neighbors on West Ct. were quickly evacuated. "The thing was all the panicking. Everybody was rushing out, jumping in their cars trying to take off, and it was causing a lot of mayhem with the streets because it's a court. You can't go in and out," Lopez said.
They took everybody out of their houses on that side for sure. They pushed everybody down the street. And they told us not to wait until it's over and they told us all to leave, but they didn't tell anybody where to go or anything," said West Ct. resident Melanie Mason.
"It was such a big fire that we instantly went defensive. So there was a first round of companies called a second and third alarm and they went defensive, which that the fought the fire from the outside," explained San Jose Fire Capt. Barry Ehlers.
