Witnessing Firemen Battling a Four-Alarm Fire at a Three-Story Commercial Building From My Bike

“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.” —Thucydides

My wife Cecile and I made plans to have lunch at Santana Row. When I opened the garage I smelled smoke but wasn’t sure where it was coming from. When we got home later in the afternoon, I retrieved my phone which I had forgotten to take with me earlier and noticed that my biking buddy Bill had been trying

to reach me to join him for a bike ride. His text indicated that a fire had broken out near the entrance of the Los Gatos Creek Trail that we ride frequently on located at Knowles Drive and Dell Avenue in Campbell, near the Los Gatos border and less than a mile from Netflix headquarters.

I decided to take an evening ride about 6 PM and saw Bill walking his dogs. He told me the fire was still burning and encouraged me to take a look. I decided to approach the area from the Hacienda entrance to the creek trail near Kaiser Permanente. I could see the smoke billowing over the trees from a distance. I was on the scene in about twenty minutes. There were teams of firemen from the Santa Clara Fire Department and from Santa Cruz still working to put out remaining flames, but for the most part it looked liked they had it mostly contained. Street access was taped off and cars had to take a detour to their destination. Having a bike made it easier to get around offering me a vantage point to take these series of photos without being in harms way. Bill took the photo of a fireman hosing down the flames inside the cyclone fence.

I discovered that the catastrophic four-alarm fire sparked at a familiar, vacant 50,000-square foot building at about 10AM. The firemen were fighting the fire from the exterior since conditions were such that the building had deteriorated rather quickly. There were an abundance of emergency vehicles including one from the Governor’s office and several battalion chiefs. The blaze was still belching smoke over a large area. Fire hose water was flooding the streets and sidewalks around the perimeter. Crews were expected to remain at the scene overnight and operations could continue over several days.

Fortunately, there were no injuries or fatalities. No evacuation orders were given, but the Los Gatos Creek Trail was closed in both directions. The building itself collapsed in the middle of the afternoon hours before I arrived on the scene. See video Clip!

Proscript: The morning after! While I slept in, Bill rode his bike to the scene earlier this morning to beat the expected rain. He texted me the last two photos, one of him, and the other clearly showing the massive building reduced to a smoldering and smoking pile of rubble. The last photo is what the building looked like before the fire. Ironically, it was scheduled to be demolished next week to make room for a new development project.