Fire Closes Downtown Petaluma Commercial Building

PETALUMA, CA — A fire caused $300,000 in damage to a downtown Petaluma building but it could have been much worse had a passerby not called 911, the Petaluma Fire Department said.

"The fire was noticed by a passerby headed to work, who dialed 9-1-1," Petaluma Fire Department Battalion Chief Chad Costa said. "Fire alarms were not sounding upon our arrival; because of the age of the building it didn’t have a fire sprinkler system."

The call about the fire at a commercial building in the 120 block of Keller Street came in at 3:44 a.m. Wednesday.

Smoke was coming from the first and second floors of a large, two-story multi-occupancy commercial building as firefighters arrived on the scene within 5 minutes.

Petaluma engine, ladder-truck and ambulance crews aggressively forced entry into all the businesses and found the fire burning in a first-floor business, Costa said.

They quickly put out the fire and contained it to that unit, while also searching the building to ensure no people or animals were inside.

Firefighters with Rancho Adobe Fire and North Bay Fire helped battle the blaze from outside, and the fire was brought under control by 4:18 a.m.

No injuries were reported to firefighters or anyone else.

The whole building sustained significant smoke damage.

"Had it not been for the passerby activating 9-1-1 early, this fire would have grown to become much more significant as this build is adjacent to multiple other downtown commercial buildings," Costa said. "By extinguishing the fire and keeping it to one unit, considerable million dollars of loss were averted."

The fire remained under investigation.

The City of Petaluma Building Department red-tagged the entire building and businesses were expected to remain closed for an unknown time.