Dozens of Contra Costa County firefighters battled a fire that broke out Monday morning in a building in Concord.
The building on 1400 Willow Pass Road used to be Lin's buffet restaurant, which closed four years ago and has since been boarded up and unused.
Fire crews responded to the fire at about 2:30 a.m., and the building was already engulfed in flames.
"Due to extensive fire in the interior it took out those banquet rooms, we had floor collapse on the inside, the roof obviously has burned through," said Contra Costa County Fire District Battalion Chief Dominic Ciotola. "Because we couldn't go inside it was a strictly defensive operation with our ladder trucks and hand lines from the exterior through the windows."
Fire at a building in Concord.Jeffrey Schaub/KCBS Radio
According to Ciotola, the department has responded to several smaller fires at the building caused by people living illegally inside in the past.
"Investigators have been out here trying to determine the cause," said Ciotola. "But it looks like it was set in some form, whether intentional or not, because it did start from the interior and was well ahead of us."
Fire at a building in Concord.Jeffrey Schaub/KCBS Radio
No other structures were impacted.
