Morning fire in Downtown Berkeley prompts evacuations

BERKELEY, Calif. - A fire broke out in Downtown Berkeley in the early morning hours on Monday, prompting several evacuations in the neighborhood as firefighters doused the blaze.

What we know:

Reports of the fire in the area of Addison and Milvia streets first began coming in about 3 a.m.

Emergency responders quickly arrived at the scene and found a media center at 1939 Addison Street fully engulfed in flames.

"When we arrived, we had heavy smoke and fire showing from the front of the building and through the roof," Berkeley Fire Department Battalion Chief Brian Harryman told KTVU. "We had exposures on all three sides, and we ended up having to evacuate the apartment complexes to the east, to the west and to the north of the building."

Harryman said authorities evacuated three apartment buildings in the area in total.

Sona B. lives at 2010 Milvia Street, and told KTVU she and her family were awoken by Berkeley Police Department officers knocking on their door.

"We opened the door, and the smell was really bad in the hallways," Sonia said.

She said neither she nor her family saw flames in their apartment building, but that they saw a neighboring building burning once they evacuated to the street.

What they're saying:

Harryman told KTVU that firefighters spent about two-and-a-half hours dousing the blaze. He said the flames began near the front of the building, were being fueled by dense storage and that the roof of the building collapsed during firefighting efforts.

However, no firefighters were injured, and the building was empty when the fire broke out.

Harryman said the heaviest firefighting efforts had concluded by about 5:30 a.m., and that the fire was under control.

However, the cause of the fire was not immediately known, and Harryman said the fire department still had to finish mopping up the scene of the fire before an investigation could begin.

The 1900 block of Addison Street was closed to traffic as fire and PG&E crews cleared and investigated the scene.

The evacuation order was lifted around 7:30 a.m. and residents returned to their apartment buildings. 

The Berkeley Fire Marshal was on-scene as of 9 a.m. investigating the fire's origin and cause.