OAKLAND \u2014 An arsonist targeted an insurance agency office adjacent to a landmark Fruitvale district Mexican restaurant early Friday, and although the business was gutted by flames, firefighters were able to prevent the blaze from spreading to the restaurant, officials said.<\/p>\n
The fire erupted about 2:47 a.m. Friday at HRC Insurance Services in the 1000 block of Fruitvale Avenue, which occupies the same building that houses the Guadalajara restaurant, officials said.<\/p>\n
The first firefighters were on scene within two minutes and found flames coming from the insurance agency.<\/p>\n
More than two dozen firefighters responded to the fire, which was declared under control about 3 a.m.\u00a0 No injuries were reported.<\/p>\n
The insurance agency suffered heavy damage, but a dollar amount was not immediately available.
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Firefighters prevented the blaze from spreading into or causing any damage to the restaurant, which was open for business Friday. Fire Department spokesman Michael Hunt\u00a0 said the restaurant \u201chas been a beloved\u00a0 institution in the Fruitvale neighborhood for decades.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hunt said investigators quickly determined the fire at the insurance agency was deliberately set, and an arson investigation has begun. How the fire was ignited, and a possible motive, have not been released.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND \u2014 An arsonist targeted an insurance agency office adjacent to a landmark Fruitvale district Mexican restaurant early…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":240836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,7218,184,861,7,8,1531,138,332,1529,99545,181,23,100,143,145,144,385],"class_list":["post-240835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-alameda-county","tag-arson","tag-bay-area","tag-bay-area-crime","tag-california","tag-california-news","tag-crashes-and-disasters","tag-crime-and-public-safety","tag-east-bay","tag-east-bay-crime","tag-east-bay-fires","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-news","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-regional"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240835","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}