A three-alarm fire heavily damaged the historic Lafayette mansion once owned by shipbuilding mogul Henry J. Kaiser on Saturday, just months after the sprawling estate sold for $5.6 million.
Known as the Kaiser Estate, the roughly 14,000-square-foot mansion was built in 1946 for the industrialist, whose companies helped build the Hoover Dam and whose Richmond shipyards transformed wartime shipbuilding during World War II. Kaiser also notably co-founded the healthcare system Kaiser Permanente. Firefighters were dispatched just before 5 p.m. Saturday to reports of a residential fire alarm at the historically significant estate on Reliez Station Lane, according to a Monday news release from the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District.
The first firefighters to arrive found heavy fire burning on the rear of the home and launched an interior attack while laying nearly 1,000 feet of hose because of the property’s long driveway and limited access for fire engines, the district said…