SACRAMENTO, California — A fire broke out Thursday destroying a former seafood wholesale in Sacramento and now the building is being demolished.
Crews with the Sacramento Fire Department responded to reports of a fire around 12:45 a.m. The fire was at the former California Shellfish Company Inc. located at the corner of 5th Street and 1st Avenue in the Upper Land Park neighborhood.
"It's definitely suspicious in nature. The building was boarded up and fenced up and there were no utilities, at this time, active in the building," Dave Lauchner with the Sacramento Fire Department said.
This isn't the first fire at the building, a fire broke out at the former seafood wholesale in early June. Residents in the area are wondering why the building wasn't demolished then.
Sacramento Fire said the city's Dangerous Buildings department came out to assess the damage then, but the roof was intact enough to keep the building standing. After the most recent fire, the roof collapsed so Sacramento Fire said the city decided to tear the building down.
"I'm just so thankful its finally being demolished," said Emily Gerofsky who lives in a complex near the building. "It's caught on fire so many times in the past. It's put our health at risk, it's put the safety of our first responders at risk."
The seafood wholesale building has been abandoned, but still Sacramento Fire says they've responded to 14 fires there since 2019.
Lauchner said the building has extensive fire damage and the fire department will work with the Housing and Dangerous Buildings staff and the owner to get the building demolished.
No one was injured in the fire, but the roof was completely burned. At the fire's peak, about 88 firefighters were fighting the blaze.
The cause of the fire is under investigation. Once the building is fully down, fire crews will work to distinguish any hot spots. They're asking people to stay out of the area to allow crews to work.
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