{"id":87349,"date":"2025-12-09T07:37:16","date_gmt":"2025-12-09T07:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/87349\/"},"modified":"2025-12-09T07:37:16","modified_gmt":"2025-12-09T07:37:16","slug":"officials-residents-call-for-action-after-130-year-old-building-burns-down-in-fresnos-chinatown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/87349\/","title":{"rendered":"Officials, residents call for action after 130-year-old building burns down in Fresno’s Chinatown"},"content":{"rendered":"

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Piles of brick, steel, and a small part of what was once one of the oldest buildings in downtown Fresno is all that remains following a devastating blaze<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Constructed around 1895, the building was part of China Alley through the settlement of several immigrant communities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.<\/p>\n

All that history is now gone after the building was the site of three fires this year. It survived the first two but finally gave way to Sunday’s massive inferno.<\/p>\n

The flames were put out within a few hours, but the community left feeling burned by what they perceived as a lack of enforcement.<\/p>\n

Several residents and property owners near the scene told Action News the unhoused population often trespassed and started fires there and in other buildings in the area.<\/p>\n

“We’ll never get it back. And that’s what these people need to understand… I know they’re probably in a bad time, you know, they’re homeless. But it’s got to stop,” said Roger Garcia, who owns the property adjacent to the destroyed structure.<\/p>\n

At this point, it’s unclear whether a warming fire caused the loss, although the Fresno Fire Department said several people were found inside the building at the time of the blaze.<\/p>\n

City officials are taking it as an example of what could happen again.<\/p>\n

Their solution is to crack down on the crime.<\/p>\n

“To go after folks who are starting these warming fires, because we see the result of having those fires unchecked,” said Fresno City Attorney Andrew Janz.<\/p>\n

Janz said Fresno recently passed a vacant building ordinance to prevent things like this from happening. Some of the conditions include requiring fences around vacant buildings and fire suppression systems.<\/p>\n

But he says that comes with challenges.<\/p>\n

“The difficulty here, with this building, is that it’s owned by High-Speed Rail. And so, the city really has no mechanism to enforce any of these rules on a state agency,” Janz said.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the California High-Speed Rail Authority responded in a statement:<\/p>\n

“The California High-Speed Rail Authority is aware of a fire that occurred at an Authority-owned property in Fresno. We appreciate the work of the Fresno Fire Department and California Highway Patrol in their efforts. At this time, as we coordinate clean up with Fresno Fire, we have no additional information to share and will continue to support and coordinate with public safety departments as needed.”<\/p>\n

Advocates for historical preservation are also frustrated, saying more efficiency is needed.<\/p>\n

“Our whole team just feels a bit dejected whenever we see something like that,” said Elizabeth Laval, president of the Fresno City and County Historical Society. “Speed does matter. And funding does need to come in order to preserve buildings such as this.”<\/p>\n

Fresno Fire said the building that burned Sunday is one of 78 vacant buildings that have caught fire in the city of Fresno so far this year.<\/p>\n

One person suffered a broken leg jumping from the building’s second story to escape the flames.<\/p>\n

The Fresno Fire Department’s Arson Unit is investigating the cause of the fire, which has not been officially released.<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2025 KFSN-TV. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) — Piles of brick, steel, and a small part of what was once one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87350,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[48884,25570,13005,17774,112,114,113,48883,294],"class_list":{"0":"post-87349","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-fresno","8":"tag-48884","9":"tag-building-fire","10":"tag-chinatown","11":"tag-downtown-fresno","12":"tag-fresno","13":"tag-fresno-headlines","14":"tag-fresno-news","15":"tag-oldest-buildings","16":"tag-timely"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87349","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=87349"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87349\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/87350"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87349"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=87349"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=87349"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}