{"id":253184,"date":"2026-04-05T19:16:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:16:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/253184\/"},"modified":"2026-04-05T19:16:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T19:16:10","slug":"fire-damages-historic-camron-stanford-house-at-lake-merritt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/253184\/","title":{"rendered":"Fire damages historic Camron-Stanford House at Lake Merritt"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/uyw9x9eeea9lpvm3.jpg\" alt=\"Oakland's historic Camron-Stanford House at Lake Merritt damaged in fire \" class=\"sr-only\" data-v-4292be72=\"\"\/>    <\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">OAKLAND, Calif. &#8211; Firefighters were able to mostly save one of Oakland\u2019s oldest and most significant historic landmarks after a fire broke out at the Camron-Stanford House along Lake Merritt.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTVU\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\">What we know:<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">The Oakland Fire Department rushed to the Victorian-era home on Saturday at 12:40 a.m., located at Lakeside Drive and 14th Street. Crews found that the fire had started on the first floor before traveling up a wall and into the attic.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">&#8220;The crews got there quickly,&#8221; said Michael Hunt, spokesperson for the Oakland Fire Department. &#8220;They got in there, worked aggressively, to prevent the rapid spread of this very old historic property.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Despite the age of the structure, Hunt reported that less than 10% of the house was damaged. The building remains structurally sound, and the majority of the museum&#8217;s historical artifacts were preserved.<\/p>\n<p original-article-post=\"\" origination_station=\"KTVU\" data-v-ec26887a=\"\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\">The backstory:<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Built in 1876 by Samuel Merritt\u2014the man instrumental in the creation of Lake Merritt\u2014the house served as a residence for several families before becoming a museum. It stands as a rare survivor of a period when Victorian homes lined the lake following the completion of the transcontinental railroad.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">&#8220;This is a beautiful space that could be used by the people of Oakland,&#8221; said Sarah Akin, a volunteer docent and board member. &#8220;It also holds 150 years of Oakland&#8217;s history.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">The fire occurred while the museum was in the midst of a fundraising campaign to recruit volunteers and raise the necessary funds to reopen to the public.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">Akin noted that the museum had been dealing with a person camping in the stairwell recently. &#8220;We suspect that is where the fire started,&#8221; Akin said.<\/p>\n<p data-v-f1afc186=\"\">However, fire officials have not yet determined an official cause. Hunt stated that investigators are working with the museum&#8217;s operators to gather information, but there is currently no person of interest in the case.<\/p>\n<p>     <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ktvu.com\/tag\/us\/ca\/alameda-county\/oakland\" class=\"tags-tag\" data-v-f1afc186=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Oakland<\/a> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"OAKLAND, Calif. &#8211; Firefighters were able to mostly save one of Oakland\u2019s oldest and most significant historic landmarks&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":253185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[389,1184,100,143,145,144,1181],"class_list":{"0":"post-253184","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-oakland","8":"tag-alameda-county","9":"tag-ca","10":"tag-news","11":"tag-oakland","12":"tag-oakland-headlines","13":"tag-oakland-news","14":"tag-us"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253184","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=253184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/253184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/253185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=253184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=253184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=253184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}