{"id":484494,"date":"2026-10-04T03:46:07","date_gmt":"2026-10-04T03:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/484494\/"},"modified":"2026-10-04T03:46:07","modified_gmt":"2026-10-04T03:46:07","slug":"arson-probe-after-truck-crash-sets-waterslide-ablaze-in-san-jose","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/484494\/","title":{"rendered":"Arson probe after truck crash sets waterslide ablaze in San Jose"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>SAN JOSE \u2014 Arson investigators are looking into the cause of a fire spurred by a pickup truck crash that spread to a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2026\/06\/14\/raging-waters-san-jose-closes\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">non-operational historic water park<\/a>\u00a0Saturday afternoon, authorities said.<\/p>\n<p>The crash was reported around 4:40 p.m. along the perimeter of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mercurynews.com\/2024\/05\/14\/san-joses-raging-waters-gets-a-new-name-ahead-of-opening\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">CaliBunga<\/a> \u2014 previously more famously known as Raging Waters \u2014 along East Capitol Expressway, according to the San Jose Fire Department.<\/p>\n<p>Fire officials said a pickup truck crashed into a fence and caught fire, and SJFD photos show the flames spread to vegetation and then a roughly three-story waterslide structure \u2014 identified by firefighters as Dragon\u2019s Den \u2014 sending multiple black columns of smoke into the air.<\/p>\n<p>Firefighters quickly contained the fire to the northwest corner of the water park property, which is contained within the larger Lake Cunningham park complex.<\/p>\n<p>Battalion Chief Jeff Fielding said the fire took about an hour to bring under control, and that after the smoke cleared, the water slide and its adjacent stair tower were destroyed, along with a shed containing electrical equipment and stored chemicals; however, no chemical leak was reported.<\/p>\n<p>Fielding confirmed that there were no reported injuries to civilians or firefighters, and that the SJFD arson unit was looking into the circumstances behind the fire.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe know it started with a vehicle but why the vehicle was there is under investigation,\u201d Fielding said. \u201cA witness saw someone leaving the area, and we have turned it over to arson (investigators) and law enforcement.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Raging Waters operated for four decades at the East San Jose site before its operators let their lease expire due to low attendance. It was taken over in 2024 by California Dreamin\u2019 Entertainment and became CaliBunga. In June, the City of San Jose announced that the 23-acre park would not be open for the summer for renovations and improvements, but a re-opening timeline has not been set.<\/p>\n<p>This is a developing story. Check back for updates.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN JOSE \u2014 Arson investigators are looking into the cause of a fire spurred by a pickup truck&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":484495,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29],"tags":[189542,350,3802,78771,88,16912,90,89,36362,63171],"class_list":["post-484494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-jose","tag-calibunga","tag-crash","tag-fire","tag-raging-waters","tag-san-jose","tag-san-jose-fire-department","tag-san-jose-headlines","tag-san-jose-news","tag-water-park","tag-waterslide"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484494","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=484494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/484494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/484495"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=484494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=484494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=484494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}