OCEANSIDEOCEANSIDE—Firefighters continued their watch late Friday for remaining hot spots in the blaze that ignited the Oceanside Municipal Pier a day earlier, seriously damaging the wooden structure and destroying two buildings on it.
The fire was mostly out, but spots were expected to continue smoldering through the night even though firefighters had contained it to the far west end of the pier. Crews removed several planks from the deck to access burning timbers below and to separate the charred section from the rest of the landmark. City officials said 90 percent of the pier was saved.
“We’ve been able to knock down the main body of the fire, there’s no more forward progress,” Oceanside Fire Department Division Chief Blake Dorse said Friday evening.
“At this point, we’ve released all of our agency partners, and we’re going to just have one fire engine tonight to keep fire watch,” he said. “We’re gonna re-evaluate first thing in the morning.”
Additional hot spots still may need to be doused, he said.
“There’s going be some smokers over the next few days that we are keeping an eye on,” Dorse said. “We just want to make sure that it doesn’t flare up or grow into any additional size.”
The structures at the pier’s end — a vacant restaurant that used to be a Ruby’s Diner and the small Brine Box fresh seafood kiosk — along with the deck beneath them sustained the greatest damage in the first few hours of the fire. No further loss is anticipated, city officials said.
The pier and the nearby beach have been closed until further notice, city officials said.
San Diego County Department of Environmental Health officials will test the water near the pier Saturday morning for any hazardous materials left by the fire and determine whether the beach is safe to reopen, Oceanside Fire Chief David Parsons said.
The Coast Guard established a federally enforceable 500-yard buffer zone around the structure Friday, and passing into the protected space could result in fines, Parsons said.
Activities at the Junior Seau Beach Community Center on The Strand below the pier were canceled Friday.
Rep. Mike Levin, D-San Juan Capistrano, whose congressional district includes Oceanside, joined firefighters and local elected officials for a news conference on the beach near the pier Friday afternoon.
“The federal government will do everything it can to provide assistance,” Levin said. “We stand ready to help with our appropriations process.”
Like others, he praised the agencies that quickly responded to the fire from across San Diego County.
“When I saw the images and the video yesterday about this time, I thought the pier would be a total loss,” Levin said. “This iconic symbol for our entire district was at risk. But because of their hard work, we’re going to be able to save most of this pier, and I can’t give them enough credit.”
The blaze, which sent clouds of dark smoke into the sky, was spotted at the empty restaurant about 3 p.m. Thursday.
More than 200 firefighters, lifeguards and police officers poured in from Oceanside and nearby cities to help put out the fire. Even a construction company that was nearby to dredge the harbor sent a boat to assist.
Officials worried the nearly 2,000-foot-long pier — the longest wooden pier on the West Coast — might be lost, but crews got a handle on the blaze by 7 p.m.
On Friday morning, nearly 50 firefighters and several firefighting vessels remained at the location. Parsons said the pier was still burning — the roof of the restaurant building collapsed overnight — and it could take days to fully douse the smoldering fire.
The continued smoldering is because of the size of the wood timbers and the flammable creosote coating used to preserve them. On Friday afternoon, two Oceanside fire boat crews continued to spray the charred end of the pier with water.
The Brine Box, a small fish shack on the pier, was legally using the kitchen in the shuttered restaurant, Parsons said. There were some concerns that kitchen grease and waste held in suspended tanks under the pier may have been impacted, but the storage devices remained intact on Friday, he said.
The city has activated its emergency operation center to help with tasks like monitoring the quality of water and air around the pier, Parsons said.
City officials said they intend to declare the fire a local emergency, which will require the Oceanside City Council’s ratification. The declaration will help the city qualify for state and federal grants to cover the costs of fighting the fire and repairing the pier.
The hammerhead portion of the pier, which is the wider section at the end with the two buildings on it, is “more or less a total loss,” said Oceanside Fire Department Chief Jess Specht. However, that area is less than 10 percent of the entire pier.
No injuries were reported, and the cause and origin of the fire remain under investigation.
Experts at the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting the Oceanside Fire Department to determine what started the fire.
“ATF is not leading the investigation … they have some lab resources that we don’t have locally,” Parsons said. “We may not need them, but we wanted them in early in case we need to engage them.
“The team is starting to narrow in on a location, based on video evidence and fire evidence that they have, and I think they are starting to get a little closer toward a potential cause, but we haven’t fully landed there yet,” he said. “We’re still a good 12 to 24 hours from where they can make a preliminary determination.”
City officials said they are committed to fixing the pier, but how long that may take is unclear.
The wooden portion of the bridge has been rebuilt multiple times, most recently in the 1980s after extensive storm damage.
The concrete approach to the pier, known as the Pier View Way Bridge, was built in 1927 and is long overdue for replacement. Last year, the City Council approved a $3.2 million consulting contract to advance design and environmental work for a new, nearly identical pier approach that would be built to meet modern standards.
Staff writer Teri Figueroa contributed to this report.
