Three-alarm fire destroys abandoned Serra Mesa office building

City News Service
Posted

SAN DIEGO (CNS) - It took more than 100 firefighters about five hours to put out a three-alarm fire at an abandoned, two-story office building in Serra Mesa this morning.

San Diego Fire-Rescue Department crews responded shortly after midnight to the Guild office building at 9160 Gramercy Drive, where they found the building engulfed in flames, according to department spokeswoman Candace Hadley.

"After assessing conditions and given the instability of the fully involved structure, crews switched to fighting the fire defensively from the exterior using ladder pipes from above at the front and right side of the building,'' she said.

The call was upgraded to a second alarm at 12:12 a.m., then a third alarm at 12:39 a.m.

"Following multiple collapses within the building, crews took a strategic tactical pause and resumed operations ... to achieve knockdown about just before sunrise (shortly after 5 a.m.),'' Hadley said.

Crews remained on the scene for the next several hours to conduct mop-up operations and look for and extinguish any remaining hot spots.

The scene was still being monitored as a precaution as of late afternoon Sunday.

No injuries were reported. The cause of the fire was under investigation.