Richard K. De Atley
San Bernardino County Sun, Calif.
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY, Calif. — Two firefighters were injured, neither seriously, when an empty two-story commercial building partially collapsed as it burned early Tuesday, Sept. 29, in San Bernardino, a battalion chief said.
San Bernardino County firefighters went to the 700 block of South Waterman Avenue at 5:20 a.m. after receiving several 911 calls of smoke coming from the building, Battalion Chief Mike McClintock said.
Firefighters arrived six minutes after the alarm was called to find heavy smoke coming from the second-story of the building. Some went inside for a search of an office area and to fight the fire inside the building when conditions worsened and there was a collapse of one area, photos from the scene showed.
As firefighters were retreating two were injured, McClintock said. One had minor injuries and was taken to a hospital, the second was treated at the scene, he said. Firefighters used ladder pipes to pour water on the fire.
The fire was out in 90 minutes. Its cause is under investigation, and fire crews were expected to be on the scene for several hours to McClintock said.
The building, 29,000 square feet including 9,000 square feet of office space, was heavily damaged. There was no immediate damage estimate Tuesday morning.
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