{"id":351116,"date":"2026-06-08T01:12:49","date_gmt":"2026-06-08T01:12:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/351116\/"},"modified":"2026-06-08T01:12:49","modified_gmt":"2026-06-08T01:12:49","slug":"berkeley-animal-shelter-closes-after-fire","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/351116\/","title":{"rendered":"Berkeley animal shelter closes after fire"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Inside the Berkeley animal shelter, at 1 Bolivar Drive, Sunday morning. The most extensive damage was under a stairway in the lobby, where pet supply donations are stored. Credit: Zac Farber\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

Berkeley\u2019s city-run animal shelter near Aquatic Park is closed Sunday after a fire broke out overnight.<\/p>\n

The fire burned through a heap of dog beds, blankets, food bags, leashes and other donated pet supplies collected under a central stairway. The building\u2019s sprinkler system put out the blaze but left water damage in the lobby. The smell of smoke, which had blackened the walls and ceiling, was still pungent as of 10:30 a.m.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThe heavy fire doors prevented most of the smoke from entering the animal holding areas,\u201d Kris Swanson of Berkeley Animal Care Services<\/a> wrote in an email to volunteers sent at 1:50 a.m. Sunday. \u201cWe checked on all animals and they seem fine. We will continue to monitor them closely.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Peter Radu, manager of Berkeley\u2019s neighborhood services division, told Berkeleyside that the city was taking Sunday to clear the shelter of debris and \u201cdeal with the immediate aftermath.\u201d Workers were wearing masks to protect themselves from the smoke.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Dog beds, blankets, food bags, leashes and other donated pet supplies were destroyed or left unusable from smoke damage. Credit: Zac Farber\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

\"\"Signs of smoke damage were evident Sunday morning. Credit: Zac Farber\/Berkeleyside<\/p>\n

Radu said he expected the shelter would open again on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After the sprinkler system turned on, Berkeley firefighters \u201carrived quickly,\u201d Swanson wrote in her email.<\/p>\n

Radu said the cause of the fire is under investigation. The Berkeley Fire Department did not immediately respond to requests for comment.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very lucky,\u201d Swanson said. \u201cThe animals will remain on site for now and staff will care for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

“*” indicates required fields<\/p>\n

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\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"Man\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tZac is editor-in-chief of Berkeleyside, where he has worked as a newsroom leader since April 2021. He specializes in shepherding move-the-needle accountability reporting and thoughtful, well-crafted features….\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Zac Farber\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Inside the Berkeley animal shelter, at 1 Bolivar Drive, Sunday morning. The most extensive damage was under a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":351117,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[2465,2466,143,145,144],"class_list":["post-351116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-home-highlight","tag-home-lead","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351116","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=351116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/351116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/351117"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=351116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=351116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=351116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}