Apartment fire on the Alameda brought quickly under control Friday evening

Multiple calls of smoke coming from an apartment complex located at 3618 Alameda De Las Pulgas in Menlo Park are received just before 7:00 pm on Friday, September 29.

Menlo Fire Engine 4 arrived on-scene minutes later, and Captain Rod Brovelli reported that they had “a three-story apartment complex with smoke coming from first floor wall in a parking garage.”

The fire in the 14-unit, three-story apartment complex was quickly brought under control by 7:10 pm as firefighters tore into the wall and extinguished a smoldering, deep-seated fire. A total of 4 Fire Engines, 1 Ladder Truck and a Battalion Chief consisting of 17 Menlo Park Fire District personnel responded to the incident.

Battalion Chief Dan Coyle said: “We’re glad the tenants reported the fire when they did because the fire had already climbed up through the wall using a pipe chase.. .Essentially, it was like a chimney that would have allowed the fire to climb and grow up into the occupied areas of the complex.”

Fire Investigators located the origin of the fire in the first floor exterior parking garage wall in what appeared to be some type of nest next to a drain pipe that ran the height of the building and vented out on the roof. Tenants reported recent roof work as a potential cause of the fire which investigators took into consideration.