Home Discovery Bay & Byron Fire Destroys Discovery Bay Home, Neighboring Homes Saved

Fire Destroys Discovery Bay Home, Neighboring Homes Saved

by ECT

At 9:02 am Wednesday, the East Contra Costa Fire Protection District responded to a report of a kitchen fire in the 5200 block of Laguna Ct. in the Town of Discovery Bay.

According to Chief Hugh Henderson, the fire started in the kitchen as a grease fire from cooking that went up into the attic and extended to the roof. Henderson further highlighted that response times played a role in the home being a complete loss.

IMG_7344“The distance is a challenge for the District, this is one of the furthest eastern places in the District for our engines to travel who are coming from the west, the outcome is not going to be good,” said Henderson.

Henderson highlighted that Engine 59 (Discovery Bay) had an 8-minute response time, Engine 52 (Brentwood) was on scene within 12-minutes, while the third engine, coming from Antioch was at 20-minutes (Station 88). Engine 93 (Oakley) and Engine 81 (Antioch) also responded with response times over 20-minutes.

While responding, fire crews were slightly delayed because drivers on Discovery Bay Blvd would not pull over and forced the District to lay on its horn multiple times before arriving on scene.

IMG_7346Fire crews arrived to find smoke and flames on the exterior with heavy smoke coming from the windows. One challenge firefighters had was the roof which was metal and prevented firefighters from an interior attack while the back of the home was water from a lake.

“The biggest challenge was it has a metal roof that has a secondary roof underneath it and the fire went into the attic and in-between roofs. The roof was not safe for firefighters to be on so they had to fight it from the outside,” explained Henderson. “The good news was no one was injured and the two houses on either side, other than minor smoke damage and a cracked window, they were left intact.”

IMG_7372Fire crews remained on scene for 7-hours and 23-minutes and as of 3:00 pm were still on scene performing overhaul said Henderson.

Henderson said the home is a complete loss with preliminary damages at more than $500,000. No firefighters or occupants were injured in the incident.

The fire displaced five-people living in the home and the Red Cross responded.

Henderson reiterated that the district is strapped for resources and that two Contra Costa Fire Protection District engines provided aid to the District on the call. Meanwhile CALFIRE covered the District while crews were in Discovery Bay.

“We need a minimum of five-engines to respond to a structure fire and today we depended on auto aid from CONFIRE,” said Henderson. “The rest of the district was stripped and at least one medical call where no fire personnel responded to.”

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