News

Jul 19, 2023

Stockton business's warehouse demolished after hourslong fire

Fire destroyed a Stockton business Wednesday in at least the fourth major blaze to wreak havoc in an industrial neighborhood this year. Around 1 p.m., firefighters started tearing down the scorched

Fire destroyed a Stockton business Wednesday in at least the fourth major blaze to wreak havoc in an industrial neighborhood this year.

Around 1 p.m., firefighters started tearing down the scorched warehouse of a wholesale cardboard business — tucked behind St. Gertrude Catholic Church, near Wilson Way and East Main Street — after getting permission for an emergency demolition from the building owner and the city, Stockton Fire Operations Chief Brandon Doolan said.

The fire had already been raging for more than 10 hours. The first call about the fire came in around 2:45 a.m., Doolan said.

Packed with cardboard, the building could have burned for days if it wasn't knocked down, he said.

Warehouse fires in industrial areas have become fairly common in Stockton: three months ago, a warehouse at another industrial property, the historic Colberg Boat Works off Fremont Street, was razed. The shipyard had already been ravaged in a separate fire months earlier.

Just steps away from Wednesday's fire, a produce distribution warehouse behind the Growers Hall on Wilson went up in flames last year.

The cause of Wednesday's fire is under investigation, Doolan said.

Nearly all the cardboard inside the warehouse — likely worth hundreds of thousands of dollars — was wiped out, said John Anderson, a Realtor who added he had sold the building to its current owner.

In front of the warehouse, a single pallet of cardboard remained among a sea of damaged merchandise, charred from the fire and soaking from the fire department's hoses.

The building was "just devastated," Anderson said. The fire also consumed a long-distance moving business in the same warehouse, destroying "personal belongings, pictures, furniture, beds," he said.

The warehouse was old and had no sprinkler system, Anderson said.

The building sold for $5 million, he said, and could take up to $10 million to rebuild with the sprinklers, fire hydrants, electrical systems, and other trappings the latest building codes require, he estimated.

The building owner could not be reached for comment.

Record reporter Aaron Leathley covers public safety. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @LeathleyAaron. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.