Firefighters responded to a house fire in the early hours of Sunday in the 2500 block of Grant Street, at Blake Street, in central Berkeley.
It caused an estimated $250,000 worth of damage to the structure and contents, forced the relocation of the home’s single occupant, and has left the man’s cat missing.
According to Interim Deputy Fire Chief Donna McCracken, first- and second-alarm assignments were dispatched to the three-story, single-family home on the corner of Grant and Blake streets after a call came in at 5:36 a.m. The fire broke out on the first floor on the Blake Street side of the home and spread to the second floor. “Occupants were outside on our arrival,” McCracken said. “[There were] no injuries to civilians or firefighters.”
McCracken said the home’s resident was displaced by the fire. A close neighbor said that a man lived in the house with his cat. The neighbor, who asked not to be named, said he assumed that would be the case. “There’s no way he can live in the house. It looks totally destroyed on the inside,” he said.
Another neighbor on Blake Street reported that some children who lived across the street from the house where the fire broke out were among the first to see flames and called 911. (Berkeleyside was unable to confirm this at press time.)
The cause of the fire is not known and was still under investigation Monday.
The cat was reportedly still missing as of Monday afternoon, McCracken said. The neighbor described the cat as all gray, about 9 pounds, and very vocal and friendly.
Berkeleyside updated this story as we sourced new information.
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