A fire broke out late last night at one of the few remaining buildings from the historic age of the Gaslamp Quarter, displacing residents of a downtown apartment.
The two-alarm fire started around 11:30 p.m. in the 700 block of Market Street.
"All of our neighbors all smelt this weird burning plastic, kind of awful smell the last couple days,” said Tiffany Cravens, a resident of the building.
About 40 residents were forced to evacuate and spend the night away from their homes. Firefighters say the residents will be allowed to return to their homes Tuesday afternoon.
Firefighters instantly noticed smoke coming through the crawl space of the building. The location of this fire proved to be tricky because the floor is made of concrete and wood.
Crews had to break through the concrete and wood flooring to knock down the fire. That happened at about 3 a.m. Tuesday, after the fire had been active for more than 3 hours.
The property manager of the building helped relocate most of the residents to other available buildings.
Local
About 80 firefighters responded to the fire. The Fire Chief said that if the city council hadn't lifted the brown-outs, many of the engines working on this fire would have been browned-out and unable to respond to the incident.
The Red Cross was called to provide housing if necessary, but most residents were able to relocate.
Fire investigators say the fire started underneath the oven of a bakery called Sweet Bricks, which has not opened yet. There is an estimated $500,000 of structural damage and $100,000 in content damage.
