By Mark Gomez
San Jose Mercury News
SAN JOSE, Calif. — Arson investigators and San Jose police are trying to figure out why a man’s body inside a parked car was inside a burning building nestled along an industrial strip of northeast San Jose during a pre-dawn blaze.
“Who he is and what he was doing in there, we’re still trying to determine,” Fire Capt. Craig Schwinge said, disclosing no further details about the victim of the fatal four-alarm fire.
The body was discovered as about 60 firefighters began battling the blaze, reported around 4:55 a.m., in a two-story building at 850 Faulstich Court off Oakland Road, a short distance from Highway 101 and Interstate 880.
Ruben Lopez, an employee of the burned business, Enclosures Engineering, said he would help the owner, whom he only knew as “George,” make small plastic parts for computers. Lopez said sometimes George worked at night, so that that the pieces would be ready for him in the morning.
Lopez said George also owned a painting business in Fremont.
Lopez said he spoke to George last night, and has been trying to reach his boss by phone all morning and has not been able to reach him. Tim Neilson, who works next door at R & D Manufacturing, added that the building was used for storage rentals, and that there may be lots of cardboard boxes fueling the flames inside.
Fighting this blaze has been extremely challenging, Schwinge told the Mercury News. More than two hours after it erupted, firefighters were unable to fight the blaze safely from inside, part of the roof collapsed. Crews were dousing the flames from ladder trucks outside the building and expect to spend much of the day controlling the blaze.
Firefighters took a “defensive position” from outside and began dousing the building’s roof with water.
Emergency crews have blocked off Faulstich Court, effectively shutting down ten businesses today. About 7 a.m., two dozen or so employees at various companies were waiting behind yellow tape only to realize they probably wouldn’t be able to work.
Passersby from several miles away could see plumes of black clouds from Interstate 880, and motorists who rolled down their windows could easily smell the stench of smoke.
Copyright 2008 San Jose Mercury News