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Flash: Fire damages historic building in downtown Berkeley

Steven Finacom
Saturday September 17, 2016 - 09:49:00 PM
Smoke billows above Bachenheimer building
Steven Finacom
Smoke billows above Bachenheimer building
Berkeley fire truck one of several on scene
Steven Finacom
Berkeley fire truck one of several on scene
The view from University and Shattuck
Steven Finacom
The view from University and Shattuck
David Mayeri confers with firefighter as he removes posters from the U.C. Theater office.
Steven Finacom
David Mayeri confers with firefighter as he removes posters from the U.C. Theater office.
On the scene were seven fire engines, two ambulances and multiple police units.
Steven Finacom
On the scene were seven fire engines, two ambulances and multiple police units.

Smoke pillared above Downtown Berkeley this afternoon as a two alarm fire damaged the rear of a partially vacant historic commercial building on University Avenue near Shattuck. 

The fire was at the rear of 2111-13 University Avenue, built in 1911 as a one story structure which has housed markets and other businesses over the decades. The west half of the building most recently housed the Krishna Copy Center. That storefront is currently vacant.  

The adjacent storefront housed storage space for the Taub Family Music Hall, which is located in the historic UC Theater a block to the west. Immediately after the fire was quelled David Mayari, head of the UC Theater, was on the corner of University Avenue with his staff, hauling off framed posters and photographs brought out of the building by Fire Department personnel. Most of the items looked intact, but some appeared to be wet. 

Donna McCracken, a Berkeley Fire Department Deputy Chief and spokeswoman at the scene, said that the police response involved “almost all of our city here”, including seven fire engines, two ambulances and multiple police units. Oakland and Albany were providing mutual aid coverage for Berkeley. There were no initial reports of injuries, but there was a later report that a firefighter had suffered a minor injury. 

McCracken said the fire had burned outdoors in a courtyard area behind the structure, then into the rear of the building. White, gray, and black smoke billowed up from the roof several dozen feet behind the facade as fire engines parked two deep along University Avenue and firefighters entered through the storefronts and by ladders to the roof. 

The street facade of the building and adjacent structures did not appear to be damaged, although the Bachenheimer building to the east was evacuated and dozens of residents stood outside. From the street, Bachenheimer fire alarms could be heard blaring, possibly set off by the smoke from the fire next door. 

University Avenue east of Shattuck and portions of Shattuck Square were closed to through traffic, adding to the traffic congestion Downtown as thousands of Cal football fans—both Golden Bears, and orange-clad Texas Longhorns—streamed east through Downtown streets towards the night game at Memorial Stadium.  

The fire occurred 93 years to the day after the massive wind-driven 1923 Berkeley Fire that destroyed some 600 structures in the hills north of the UC Berkeley campus. The southwestern edge of the 1923 Fire was just a block east of today’s fire. 

The entire block frontage along University Avenue is awaiting development with apartments above the historic commercial facades, as part of the Acheson Commons project. City of Berkeley project approvals specified restoration of the historic facades as part of the development. All but one of the buildings facing University Avenue were built between 1908 and 1925, and several of them are designated City of Berkeley landmarks. (The Bachenheimer Building is a later, non-historic, structure). 

The block, once owned and developed by the Acheson family, was most recently owned by Equity Residential which successfully sought the permits from the city for housing construction behind the historic commercial facades. The University Avenue block frontage has recently been sold to another national apartment firm, McRef Acheson LLC in July. 

Construction has not started on the housing development, but many of the commercial spaces—including the Ace Hardware store at the east end of the block—have been vacated.  

There was no formal statement by the Fire Department on the cause of the fire at press time. Spectators at the scene who had been in the Campanile when the fire started said they had seen white smoke rising from the block, followed by fire department sirens. The smoke burned brown and gray for some time, then billowed thick and black for minutes as firefighters attacked the blaze from the roof and inside the building. 

Although there was a ladder truck at the scene, no ladders were raised during the fire and most of the firefighting appeared to be taking place from hoses brought through the storefronts