UKIAH >> A shuttered Ukiah bar burned to the ground Thursday in a blaze that started overnight, the Ukiah Valley Fire Authority reported.
“Now it’s just a pile of ashes,” UVFA Division Chief Kevin Jennings said of the closed business, explaining that two engines responded to the long-closed building in the 1500 block of South State Street shortly after 1 a.m. April 5 and found smoke coming out of the building but no flames visible.
However, the structure was “well-involved” with flames inside, and Jennings said given that the “building had been vacant for years and was in a poor state of repair,” the decision was made to not have firefighters enter the building to extinguish the fire and instead focus on containing it.
Jennings said he had not officially determined a cause, but that people had obviously been living in the building for some time.
“Transients had been constantly chased out of there, and earlier that night law enforcement had responded to the building for a fight between a couple there,” he said, adding that there were also “multiple five-gallon propane tanks” inside, indicating to him that they were being used for warmth or cooking.
Jennings said while the fire was likely caused by human activity, he did not believe it was intentionally set, “because why would you burn down the place you were living in?”
Five months ago, a shed behind the former business was destroyed in a fire that was discovered around 3:30 a.m. Nov. 24, 2017.
UVFA Capt. John Strangio also responded to that fire after calls started coming in and he could see a column of smoke from the fire district’s south station on Laws Avenue.
During their attempt to put out that fire the roof of the shed began collapsing, so Strangio said the decision was made to let the structure burn, both to keep firefighters safe and to allow them to focus their efforts on keeping the fire from spreading.
“There was a bus stop and vehicle threatened,” Strangio said, adding that the fire did not spread and no injuries were reported.
He said at the time the November fire was “definitely caused by a human. There was no electricity or gas going to the building, so it had to have been started by someone.”
