Photos: Steve Marcotte/OsideNews

Oceanside CA- Multi-alarm fires in two areas of Oceanside stretched the fire departments resources thin Tuesday night. The first three alarm fire was reported shortly before 8:00pm at 999 N. Pacific Street. Smoke was reported on the first floor of the North Coast Village condominium complex. Firefighters had trouble extinguishing the fire because it was burning inside the walls of a lower floor unit. The fire traveled up the walls between the wall studs to the roof of the three-story structure. “We were chasing this thing to the roof” said an Oceanside Fire Captain, “Every time we opened a wall, we found new fire.” It took firefighters from Oceanside, Vista, Carlsbad, Encinitas and Camp Pendleton approximately 30 minutes to contain the fire. Three units of the complex, 106, 206 and 306, were left uninhabitable but other residents were allowed back in the building at 9:42 pm. The Red Cross is assisting the displaced residents and others who did not want to return to their units due to smoke smell or water damage. The cause is under investigation with electrical being considered a possibility.

A second multi-alarm fire that lit up the night sky in North Oceanside was called in to 911 shortly before 8:30 pm. With a major portion of Oceanside fire resources tied up at the Pacific Street fire, the first people to arrive on the scene of the spectacular blaze at 4617 N. River Road were Battalion Chief Felipe Rodriquez and an Oceanside Fire Department Ambulance crew of two. The Chief directed the crew to park the ambulance between the fire and some residential units that were being threatened by the blaze. A truck from the Vista Fire Department arrived on the scene and the crew from that unit, the two Firefighter/Paramedics and the Battalion Chief were able to surround the fully engulfed structure with hose lines and prevented the spread of flames to near-by houses and a fuel tank. Units from Camp Pendleton, North County Fire, San Marcos and Vista Fire arrived to finish extinguishing the blaze.
The fire was in a storage facility and office at the Nagata Brothers Farm. The farm has been owned and operated at the location by the Nagata family since the 1930’s They pack blueberries, strawberries and tomatoes. The storage area contained tools and old equipment and were destroyed. Firefighters saved the old house that Neil Nagata, owner of the farm, grew up in during the 1950’s.
Engine Companies from as far as Del Mar and Escondido were called in to stage as back-up for the Oceanside Fire Department which battled three major fires in less than 5 hours on Tuesday.