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Fire guts old Henkel building(The Argus (Fremont, Calif.) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) May 14--FREMONT -- Firefighters said they had contained a two-alarm fire Tuesday evening that devoured an abandoned office building in the Niles District. The fire was first reported at 6:28 p.m. at the long-abandoned Henkel property on Niles Boulevard between Mission Avenue and J Street. Firefighters, dousing flames from the top of two engines and a ladder truck, were able to keep the fire from spreading to an adjacent warehouse that is also abandoned. No one was injured in the blaze, which is now under investigation, Deputy Fire Chief Geoff La Tendresse said. The 15,000-square-foot office building was completely destroyed. The property is full of contaminants, a product of its past as a manufacturing plant where paint chemicals and other toxins were produced. However, La Tendresse said the fire posed no environmental risk to the community because the contaminated soil was not situated below the office building. Several witnesses said they had reason to think arson was to blame for the blaze. Han Tranh and her nephew said they were driving onto Niles Boulevard when they saw knee-high flames coming from the office building. At that moment, Tranh said a man across the street from the building pointed at two teenage boys fleeing from the flames and said, "Hey did you do that?" Nathan Grant, 25, said he also saw two teens running away from the scene as smoke began to drift toward him on a nearby rail bridge. "It was really black billowing smoke, really dense, really dark," he said. "It went from almost nothing to 'Oh my gosh, this thing is huge.'" The property, owned by the German firm Henkel Corp., has stirred debate in the district. Henkel has a proposal under review to demolish all of the buildings on the property at 37899 Niles Blvd. and decontaminate the soil. Many residents support demolition, but several had started a petition asking that the office building and warehouse be preserved and recognized as historical buildings. "It's a tragic loss for Niles," longtime resident Bruce Cates said. He was part of a group hoping to rehabilitate the office, which was designed by famed architect William Wurster, for use as an archival resources center. The fire department dispatched eight engine companies and two ladder trucks to the fire. The blaze was declared under control at 7:34 p.m., La Tendresse said. Crews stayed past 8 p.m. fighting flames. Fremont reporter Matthew Artz can be reached at 510-353-7002 or [email protected]. Read his blog at www.ibabuzz.tricitybeat.com. To see more of The Argus or to subscribe to the newspaper, go to http://www.insidebayarea.com/argus/. Copyright (c) 2008, The Argus, Fremont, Calif. Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services. For reprints, email [email protected], call 800-374-7985 or 847-635-6550, send a fax to 847-635-6968, or write to The Permissions Group Inc., 1247 Milwaukee Ave., Suite 303, Glenview, IL 60025, USA. |