911 Calls Credited As Keeping At Bay Menlo Park Apartment Fire

MENLO PARK, CA – Recent roof work may have caused a fire Friday in a three-story apartment building in Menlo Park, fire officials said, adding that calls from tenants, reporting smoke, staved off widespread damage.

Multiple people called at about 6:50 p.m. to report that smoke was coming from a 14-unit apartment building at 3618 Alameda De Las Pulgas.

"Tenants reported recent roof work as a potential cause of the fire which investigators took into consideration," according to the agency.

When firefighters arrived they saw that smoke was coming from a first-floor wall in a parking garage. Fire officials said that the fire was under control at 7:10 p.m.

The fire had climbed a wall by the time firefighters got to the building so fire officials were glad tenants reported the fire when they did. Otherwise the fire could have spread to occupied areas of the building.

"We're glad the tenants reported the fire when they did because the fire had already climbed up through the wall using a pipe chase that our Truck Company advised that they had smoke coming from it up on the roof," Battalion Chief Dan Coyle said. "Essentially, it was like a chimney that would have allowed the fire to climb and grow up into the occupied areas of the complex."

The origin of the fire was in an exterior parking garage wall in some type of nest, according to fire officials.

About $5,000 of damage was done by the fire and firefighters who were doing their work to get to the fire.

Fire Marshal Jon Johnston said the structural damage was caused by the firefighters who needed to open up the stucco and sheet rock wall to locate the fire and burned-out wood framing.

The cause is under investigation. Fire officials said no one was injured.

Firefighters used a thermal imaging camera to check the walls in the units above the fire.

Menlo Park Firefighters were on-scene for two hours and 15 minutes to make sure the fire was completely out and that it no longer posed a threat to the apartment complex built in 1964. Four fire engines, one ladder truck and 17 Menlo Park Fire District personnel responded to the incident.

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--Bay City News contributed to this report/PHOTO: Fire Marshal Jon Johnston and Investigator David Perrone work to determine the origin and cause of a fire in the exterior wall of a Sharon Heights Apartment Complex in Menlo Park. Credit: Menlo Park Fire District Photographer Peter Mootz