Business Owners Sifting Through Destruction After 5-Alarm Fire Ripped Through Warehouses
SOUTH SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — Fire investigators are working to find out what caused the five-alarm blaze in South Sacramento Monday night.
"It was bad. It was very quick," said Johnny Billay.
Billay was on scene assessing the damage to his auto service shop Tuesday morning after a massive fire roared through several commercial buildings at La Grande industrial park including a wood pallet storage facility and mattress warehouse.
"They all have different combustible items and stuff that just starts taking off," said Capt. Keith Wade with the Sacramento Fire Deptartment.
Nineteen cars were damaged at Billay's business.
"A lot of damage. All these cars burned. [I'm] out $14,000. All my tools," said Billay.
Abraham Rico was also standing outside watching the cleanup.
"We are just waiting to go inside, take what we can," said Rico.
Rico's business was also damaged. Thankfully, both business owners have insurance. Rico wonders how the fire started, especially after a recent scare.
"Last week there was a fire over there on that side of the street but we didn't know why. We heard it was because of some homeless that were out there," he said.
Four firefighters suffered minor injuries. Authorities say getting it under control was a challenge because they had to run water supply lines from a mile away due to low water pressure in the area.
"When you have this many lines on the ground and you're trying to supply a certain amount do water to those lines you have to have an adequate amount of water to penetrate and out the die out," said Wade.
Crews stayed on the scene throughout the day to put out hot spots. The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
