WATSONVILLE—A large fire broke out in an attached garage that housed numerous vehicles late Saturday night on the 100 block of Riverside Road in Watsonville.
Around 10:20pm, 911 dispatchers got many calls involving flames and a towering column of smoke emanating from an older style home and attached garage. When firefighters from Cal Fire and Watsonville Fire Department arrived, flames were lashing high into the night sky and were spreading to the home and surrounding vegetation. Firefighters had to run hundreds of feet of hose from a distant fire hydrant to pump in water to tackle the blaze. The extended hose lay led Santa Cruz County Sheriff’s deputies to shut down Riverside Road between Blackburn Street and Lakeview Road.
An official with Cal Fire said there were no reports of injuries as of 11pm and that the cause of the blaze was unknown.
The home has had a rocky history with law and fire officials, including a string of fires and an attempted homicide while the property has become a magnet for scores of abandoned vehicles, heaps of trash and makeshift tents over the years.
This story will be updated.
