San Jose Warehouse Fire Controlled

SAN JOSE, Calif. (KCBS)- Fire crews poured thousands of gallons of water to control a warehouse fire in San Jose's industrial section of town.

San Jose Fire Captain Chuck Rangel says about 70 firefighters responded after receiving the call that a fire broke out around 2 p.m. Saturday in the commercial building near Interstate 280 and Highway 101. It was controlled by 5 p.m.

Crews battled the fire initially, but quickly realized they were over matched.

Captain Rangel admitted the crew had to back out of the building because of the intensity of the fire and the amount of fire involved inside the building.

"We went into a defensive operation which means we set up ladder pipes and dumped lots of water on it," said Rangel.

The contents of the building were one of the main reasons why the building went up in smoke so quickly.

Rich Buckner leases space in the building which is pretty much destroyed and is glad no one was injured.

"There's a wood flooring company in the front, a moving company, a woodshop, a Mexican wholesale place, a barrel company, said Buckner.

Rangel added the fire had the potential to be much worse.

"There was some ember production coming off this fire because of the wind. At one point we saw some embers in excess of one foot by one foot that were still burning, heading south," said Rangel.

An engine company was specifically set up to trace embers and make sure more fires aren't started.

Officials had issued a "shelter-in-place" warning for a half-mile area south of 1700 block of San Jose's Rogers Avenue. That warning was lifted by evening.

The cause of the blaze is still unknown.