An abandoned building just south of Gilman Street at Second Street in northwest Berkeley went up in flames shortly before 4 a.m. today, drawing a heavy response from the Berkeley Fire Department and shutting down part of Gilman as crews moved in to fight the blaze near the railroad tracks.
Authorities asked people to steer clear of Gilman at Second while firefighters worked through the early morning to contain the fire.
Early response and scene updates
According to emergency dispatches reported by The Berkeley Scanner, arriving crews had to force open a locked gate to get to the east side of the property where flames were burning closest to the tracks. By about 5 a.m., firefighters told radio dispatchers that they had “the majority of the fire knocked down,” and officials reopened Gilman to traffic at roughly 5:20 a.m.
Access problems at Gilman industrial strip
The stretch south of Gilman between Second and Fourth streets is a mix of industrial and vacant properties that can be tough to reach quickly when something goes wrong. A January 2024 report from Berkeleyside described a similar warehouse fire on Second Street near Gilman where firefighters had to hunt for openings through locked gates and at times switch to a defensive attack because interior conditions were unsafe.
What officials have said and what’s next
The Berkeley Scanner reports that it has requested additional details from the Berkeley Fire Department and that BFD had not posted a formal incident statement when the outlet published its early dispatch-based account. Dispatches also noted that a separate building in the same area burned roughly two months earlier. Even after the roadway reopened, emergency crews stayed on scene to check for hot spots and begin follow-up work…