South Bay animal shelter to reopen after fire halts adoptions
MILPITAS, Calif. - One of the major animal shelters in the South Bay is working to reopen after a fire forced staff and animals to evacuate.
The fire that broke out at Humane Society Silicon Valley in Milpitas on Monday morning forced the center to close and discontinue all services while repairs are underway.
There were no injuries, but it has put pet adoptions on hold during one of the busiest times of the year.
On Tuesday afternoon, crews worked outside the complex to clean up what was primarily water damage, according to officials at the shelter.
On Monday morning, a fire inside the ceiling of the center’s laundry room triggered the fire suppression sprinkler system, which caused most of the damage.
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It "caused a lot of water damage in our medical clinic as well as in our operations area which is adjacent to the laundry room and has left about half of our building unusable,’ said Nancy Willis, the vice president of strategic growth at the shelter.
Willis said there were just under 100 animals in the shelter at the time of the fire. The Humane Society called in its team of foster families to get many of them offsite and into stable environments while repairs are made to the building.
"Of course, all of the animals were evacuated out of the shelter because we did not know what was going to happen," Willis said.
The news of the closure came as a surprise to some people who arrived hoping to adopt pets.
"I came today to get a dog for my children," said Milpitas resident Nico Afuola.
Afuola stopped by the shelter on his lunch hour to try to adopt a dog as a Christmas gift for his family.
"I mean I was kind of bummed out, you know, I wanted to get a dog, but it is OK I will go take a look somewhere else. But this is my first choice," Afuola said.
The fire also damaged the shelter's computer servers, interrupting the ability to show online animals available for adoption.
The center plans to reopen its adoption services on Wednesday and believes the community will respond.
"Folks will come in, adopt the animals that we have on our adoption floor now, and we will be able to continue to bring animals in and find loving homes for them," Willis said.
Milpitas Fire Chief Jason Schoonover said in a statement on Tuesday, "Additional investigation found that the fire appeared to have started in a portion of the building utilized for utility and laundry purposes, prior to spreading to the attic and activating the automatic fire sprinkler protection system."
He added that while the sprinkler system minimized fire spread, the facility sustained substantial smoke and water damage.
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.