PICO NEIGHBORHOOD Fire officials believe it could be days before they learn what ignited a monster of a blaze on Monday, a fire that nearly gutted a two-story office building, collapsed its roof and took with it three small businesses.
Firefighters had the blaze at the 15,000-square-foot structure at 1928 14th St. largely under control by 1 a.m. Tuesday, less than six hours after the Santa Monica Fire Department first responded to a call around 7:30 p.m. of a fire across the street from Woodlawn Cemetery.
City building inspectors on the scene deemed the building unsafe early Tuesday morning, keeping Santa Monica Fire investigators from entering the structure to search for clues as to the cause of the fire. Investigators were still waiting late Tuesday afternoon for a private contractor hired by the property owner to secure the core walls of the building.
The fire erupted shortly before dusk at a split-level building occupied by Imperial Media Services — a media production company specializing in the duplication of CDs and DVDs, as well as a software business and a graphic design firm, according to Santa Monica Fire Marshall Jim Glew.
In the aftermath of the fire, a deeply charred building was exposed among its counterparts of small businesses and auto repair shops on a normally quiet stretch of 14th Street. That wasn’t the case the night before, as the biggest blaze in recent Santa Monica history brought swarms of residents out of their homes, Pico Boulevard was jam-packed with cars, and intersections throughout the area were crowded with onlookers, cameras in hand.
The stretch of 14th Street between Michigan Avenue and Pico Boulevard reopened to traffic on Tuesday.
Smoke still steamed from the windows and entryways of the building as there were still pockets of fire burning from within, Glew said. The stench of burning CD cases permeated the immediate vicinity. Still, the smoke from the fire was not toxic enough for firefighters to evacuate residents in the immediate neighborhood, according to Capt. Scott Ziegert.
A small crowd of firefighters, insurance investigators, building officials and business owners affected by the destruction were on the site Tuesday, sifting through some of the items pulled from the building, including a number of charred desktop computers.
Among the business owners on the scene Tuesday was Imperial Media Services founder Howard Ganz, talking to person after person, determining what his next steps should be.
Ganz founded Imperial Tape Company in 1982 in a 600-square-foot apartment, later upgrading his company to an 8,000-square-foot space on 14th Street and changing the name of his business to the Imperial Media Company. Ganz was not sure when the business relocated to the current site.
Imperial Media Services occupied more than half of the office building.
An exhausted-looking Ganz tried to remain optimistic about the future on Tuesday, saying that as a Santa Monica resident and business owner, he intended to rebuild his company here and was thankful that none of his employees were injured.
“It’s just a business,” Ganz said. “We’ll continue to take care of our clients because that’s what we do.”
The business prides itself as being Southern California’s largest CD and DVD duplicator.
Fire officials say the stacks of CD jewel cases melting in the business further fueled the fire, making it an even more difficult battle for firefighters as the jewel cases are petroleum-based.
Just a few buildings down is Fast Track Electronics, a radio repair shop filled with plastics.
Store co-owner Dave Barry received a call from the Santa Monica Fire Department around 10 p.m. on Monday that his building was not in danger. Barry was not even aware of the fire until he received the call.
Watching coverage of the fire on television, Barry saw just how close the fire was to his business.
Holding up a CD case, Barry talked about how dangerous the jewel cases can be, saying that it’s like adding fuel to a fire.
“It would’ve been a real bummer,” Barry said, alluding to the fire’s proximity to his business. “I feel very bad for them (Imperial Media Services).”
THE SKY WAS RAINING ASH The fire is believed to be Santa Monica’s biggest since a blaze claimed the old Broadway Gymnasium Club on 12th Street in 2000, Ziegert said.
When firefighters arrived on the scene Monday, flames shot up from the structure, causing firefighters to battle the blaze on the “defensive,” which means they had to fight the fire from the outside.
Nancy Kaufman, owner of the nearby boutique Brat, had gone home for the day when she received a call from a friend that her building was on fire. Fearing the worst, Kaufman made her way from her home on Pearl Street back to the store, seeing fire-fighters standing on her building as they battled the blaze.
The store remained closed on Tuesday. Kaufman was optimistic that she would reopen today.
“As I look out my window right now, there is ash falling,” she said on Tuesday.
Filmmaker Todd Darling was just leaving his office, located next door to Imperial Media Services, when he smelled smoke. He went down the driveway separating the two buildings and saw a black cloud wisping from the back of the structure.
He ran to the front to see if anyone was still in the building and saw several employees of an office on the first floor leaving for the day, oblivious that there was a fire brewing. Darling dialed 9-1-1 from his cell phone, getting a recording for the California Highway Patrol. After trying a few more times, Darling said he finally got a hold of the fire department.
In the short period of time from the moment he smelled smoke to when he contacted the fire department, the fire spread rapidly, Darling said.
Just a few weeks ago, Darling moved out of the Imperial Media Services building, relocating his business just a few yards away.
“It’s very disturbing to see the place I was in not have a roof,” Darling said.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on June 20, 2007. Read the original PDF.