Update: 4 Alarm Fire Put Out in Burlingame

Updated:

Firefighters have extinguished a four-alarm fire that badly damaged a residential and commercial building near downtown Burlingame and displaced at least one person, a fire marshal said.
           
The blaze was reported in a two-story building in the 1200 block of Donnelley Avenue, about half a block from the Burlingame Caltrain station, at 3:49 a.m., according to Central County Fire Marshal Rocque Yballa.
           
The building housed a commercial office on the first floor and a residential unit on the second floor.
           
Crews arrived on the scene to find the right side of the building as well as its front porch fully engulfed in flames, Yballa said.
           
Nearly 70 firefighters were called to battle the four-alarm blaze, which spread into the building's attic and completely burned out the inside, according to the fire marshal.
           
Crews were able to get the fire under control by 5:30 a.m., he said.
           
A search of the property revealed that no one was at home at the time of the fire, except for one man living in a detached unit behind the main building who called to report the fire.
           
That man and possibly two other residents who weren't home at the time of the fire have been displaced.
           
Yballa said the fire appears to have started in the main building's living room area.
           
Yballa said investigators don't know what caused the fire, but said that the structure's age and its wood-shingled siding likely contributed to its rapid spread.
           
The main building, which the fire marshal estimated to date back to the early 1900s, was built before automatic sprinklers were required, he said.
           
"If these buildings had sprinklers, it would have been contained to building of origin," he said.
           
The fire marshal said there do not appear to be any signs that the fire was intentionally set.
           
A damage estimate from the blaze was not available.

Earlier Story:
Firefighters are battling a four-alarm blaze that impacted two buildings in Burlingame this morning, according to a fire marshal.

The blaze was reported in the 1200 block of Donnelley Avenue, about half a block from the Burlingame Caltrain station, at 3:49 a.m., according to Central County Fire Marshal Rocque Yballa.

According to Yballa, a building consisting of four units was engulfed in flames and the fire also impacted a building just to the east.

The buildings consist of both commercial and residential units.

 No injuries have been reported and the cause of the fire has not yet been determined, Yballa said.

Copyright © 2013 by Bay City News, Inc. -- Republication, Rebroadcast or any other Reuse without the express written consent of Bay City News, Inc. is prohibited.