Two-alarm fire heavily damages vacant Berkeley commercial building

A vacant Berkeley commercial building was heavily damaged in a fire Wednesday morning.

BERKELEY — A two-alarm blaze that started from an outside grass fire did major damage to a vacant commercial building early Wednesday, causing its roof to partially collapse, officials said.

No injuries were reported in the fire.

Officials said that about 2:42 a.m. Wednesday, the Berkeley Fire Communications Center received a 911 call from an alarm company reporting smoke and a heat detector activation at 701 Heinz Ave. At the same time, a report of a grass fire in the rear of the building was received.

Officials said the first firefighters on the scene found that the grass fire had extended into the building.

While firefighters were battling the blaze, an electrical transformer caught fire and exploded, causing a power line to fall onto a parked vehicle, fire department spokesperson Dafina Dailey said.

That prompted a second-alarm response. PG&E later shut down power in the area for a time.

When the building had a partial roof collapse, a third alarm was requested but that was soon cancelled as crews on scene went into a defensive operation mode, officials said.

The fire was declared under control at 7:10 a.m. A crew remained on the scene for several hours to make sure there were no flareups.

Berkeley firefighters were assisted by firefighters from Oakland and the Alameda County Fire Department. Berkeley police assisted with traffic control. It was not clear if there were any evacuations of people in the area.

The cause of the fire remains under investigation and a damage figure has not been determined.

According to on-line accounts, the building was constructed in 1960 and has 15,360 square feet of space. It has been unoccupied for more than six months.