Election Section

Fire Department Log

By Richard Brenneman By Richard Brenneman
Thursday June 04, 2009 - 07:10:00 AM

Where there’s smoke—even the sweet-smelling kind—there’s sometimes fire, as the occupants of one Berkeley apartment discovered to their chagrin last week. 

Firefighters got a 911 call at 1:57 a.m. Wednesday, May 27, reporting heavy smoke coming from an apartment building in the 1500 block of Harmon Street. 

Deputy Fire Chief Gil Dong said the arriving emergency crew found smoke pouring from a second-floor apartment and quickly extinguished the blaze, confining the flames to the single unit. 

The deputy chief estimated the fire caused $10,000 in structural damage and another $5,000 in loss to the apartment’s contents. 

Cause of the early morning fire? “Unattended incense, which spread to nearby paper and from there to the bed.”