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Photo By Bruce Dembecki
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At approximately 9:00 P.M., on Wednesday, June 27, a fire was reported in a dumpster at the rear of
a commercial building at 2000 Concourse Drive in San Jose. Initially dispatched as a
smoke investigation arriving firefighters were confronted with a dumpster that
was well ablaze, and flames climbing the wall of the building. A first alarm was
struck, and when firefighters got inside and discovered heavy smoke and some
fire damage on the second floor above the dumpster, a second alarm was
called.
Next to the dumpster, firefighters found a canister containing a number of
Lithium Ion battery cells that was also burning, and presented a challenge to
extinguish. While the structure was cleared and the fire stopped before it
spread far into the building, the Li-Ion batteries would constantly reignite.
The batteries and the smoke they were emitting upgraded the incident to a Hazmat
incident and mutual aid from County Fire's Hazmat 2 team was summoned to the
scene, along with Fire Associates.
Fire Associates member Bruce Dembecki responded with Fire Support Unit 2
and he was met on scene by members Mike Chappell, Ron Green and Jerry Haag. A
Rehab station was set up away from problem area and both hot and cold drinks
were popular on a warm summer's evening. Fire Support Unit 2 was on scene from
10:20 P.M. until after midnight before being released. San Jose crews were still
working on smoke evacuation and other tasks on scene as late as 2:00 A.M.
- Bruce's photos can be viewed at: Concourse Drive Fire
