For the latest update on the San Jose Home Depot fire, click here.
A shelter-in-place advisory was lifted early Sunday afternoon for residents living or working near a South San Jose Home Depot that was destroyed Saturday in a fiery blaze, sending a thick plume of gray smoke into the air and forcing widespread evacuations.
The threat of hazardous gasses from the building’s smoldering remains caused the San Jose Fire Hazardous Incident Team to deem the air quality to be “unhealthy” Saturday night into Sunday morning. As a result, officials instructed residents in the area of the Home Depot store at 920 Blossom Hill Road to stay inside, close all windows and doors and turn off any air conditioning systems.
New details emerged Sunday of where the fire began, with the first flames appearing to originate in a back corner of the building in the store’s lumber section, said Capt. Christopher Pickup, a San Jose Fire Department spokesman. The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Firefighters finally got the five-alarm fire under control at 11:45 p.m. Saturday – about six hours after it erupted – but crews continued working throughout the night to clean up hotspots and ensure that embers did not drift over to neighboring businesses or homes.
San Jose Fire Battalion Chief Brad Cloutier called the Home Depot store “pretty much a total loss.”
“The roof has pretty much collapsed,” he said during a news briefing, adding that materials inside of the store like paint thinner, lumber and other flammable elements made the blaze uniquely challenging to extinguish.
Councilman Matt Mahan, who represents the district and lives just a quarter-mile from the home improvement store, said in an interview late Saturday night that the air in his neighborhood — as well as inside of his own home — smelled like “chemicals” and “burning plastic.”
“I’m sure the air quality is not healthy to breathe,” he said, adding that he was still trying to get more information from city officials and first responders.
The National Weather Service tweeted Saturday evening that a blistering heat signature created by the fire was detected from a satellite in space.
At about 5:30 p.m. Saturday, dispatchers received numerous calls from employees and patrons about a commercial structure fire, according to Cloutier. The Home Depot store, which is located in a shopping center across from the Westfield Oakridge Mall, quickly went up in flames, sending customers and employees fleeing.
Video footage shared on social media by San Jose resident Philip Hurst depicted a frightening scene in which large, fiery embers fell from the ceiling inside the store while Home Depot employees stood outside the doorway, yelling at people: “Get out of the building!”
Hurst, who was shopping inside the home improvement store before the fire, said he did not smell any smoke nor see any signs of a possible fire while shopping or checking out. But when he was putting his items in his car, he saw people rushing out of the store and went back to see what the commotion was about.
“I don’t know how it started, but it spread fast,” he said in a message. On his drive home, Hurst said pieces of ash measuring the size of a dinner plate were falling from the sky nearly a mile away from the store.
Quick video I took. Hopefully everyone got out. #homedepotfire #homedepot pic.twitter.com/DNswqQuB2J
— Philip Hurst (@pshurst) April 10, 2022
At least 30 fire units with 100 firefighters responded to the scene, some of which were deployed to a neighborhood south of the store in order to prevent any damage to nearby homes. There have been no reports of injuries or missing people, Cloutier said during a news briefing at 8 p.m. Saturday.
Other nearby businesses, including Petco and the Wagly Veterinary Hospital and Pet Campus, were also forced to evacuate in haste. Anyone who is missing a pet has been instructed to report to the Golfland on Blossom Hill Road.
Rocky Olivares, who used to work at the Home Depot store, said he immediately responded to the scene when he heard about the fire to make sure his former coworkers were safe. When he arrived, Home Depot had already been evacuated but he said it appeared that the wind and smoke were moving toward the Wagly Veterinary Hospital.
Concerned about those still inside, Olivares said he ran into the building and began working to get employees and pets out safely.
“It was smoky in the building,” he said. “You could see but there was a thermal layer and there was already a layer of smoke.”
The veterinary hospital received some smoke and water damage from firefighters working to prevent the fire spread, Cloutier said, but the extent of the damage is unclear.
The Home Depot fire, which put off a hefty plume of smoke that could be seen across the South Bay, broke out several hours after another massive blaze erupted Saturday afternoon at an East Bay port, similarly enveloping nearby communities in thick smoke.
At about 2 p.m. Saturday, firefighters responded to a fire at the Port of Benicia. The fire was quickly elevated from a two to a four-alarm fire as it engulfed a long, wooden dock on the Carquinez Strait near the Benicia-Martinez Bridge on Interstate 680. No injuries were reported, according to officials.
