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| Photo by Craig Allyn Rose |
At a little before 4:00 A.M. on Nov. 9, the Fire Associates pagers started going off. Located at 5583 Walnut Blossom Drive, the San Jose Fire Dept. was working an apartment fire and they had just gone to a 3rd alarm. John Whiteside headed to Fire Station 35 to get Fire Support Unit 3 while Bill Roth picked up donuts and Bruce Dembecki went straight to the scene.
The blaze had destroyed multiple units in one building of the Blossom Oaks Apartments, a complex with more than 20 buildings. With flames as high as 50 feet coming from the roof of the two-story building, firefighters called a second alarm. When the roof collapsed over 4 of the 2nd story units, a third alarm was struck. Eight of the 22 units in the fire building were heavily damaged, and several others suffered minor damage. Firefighters worked to prevent the spread of the blaze to other buildings.
The fire was placed under control at 7:00 A.M. and fire crews remained on scene throughout the day.
A large number of residents from the fire building and nearby buildings were out on the street. Several VTA buses were called in to provide residents with shelter from the elements while the Red Cross worked to establish temporary accommodation for almost 50 displaced residents. One firefighter suffered minor injuries.
Fire Associates established Rehab, on this cool Sunday morning, on Walnut Blossom Dr. and with the cool morning our hot coffee proved very popular with the firefighters, as were the donuts, of course.
- A San Jose Mercury News story can be read at this link: Apartment Fire
- Craig Allyn Rose's photos can be viewed at this link: Walnut Blossom
-- Report submitted by Bruce Dembecki
