Salinas officials investigate suspicious fire at the Dick Bruhn building in Old Town

Salinas firefighters are still tending to a 90-year-old building in Old Town Salinas that caught fire over the weekend.

Saturday, the Dick Bruhn building in the 300 block on Main Street was engulfed in flames. Salinas fire chief Ed Rodriguez said the goal Monday night is to put the fire completely out so investigators can find out exactly how it started.

Rodriguez is calling the incident a historic fire in the city. He said so far, 42 engine companies and more than 200 firefighters from Monterey and Santa Cruz counties have fought the fire or assisted in coverage.

“Probably the single largest commitment to a building fire that we’ve had
in Salinas,” said Rodriguez.

But he said there’s still more work to be done.

“Once we get the fire completely out we will do a search for victims. We
still haven’t cleared the building because as you know the fire got so
intense we had to pull everybody out,” said Rodriguez.

While they still don’t know the cause, Rodriguez said there were reports of people running from the building.

“This is a non-occupied building. There was not supposed to be anyone
working in the building, anyone occupying the building. So until we know
for sure the exact cause of the fire or the origin we can’t rule out
suspicious activity,” said Rodriguez.

Arson investigators with the ATF are scheduled to arrive Tuesday. City leaders will also evaluate the building and determine whether it should be knocked down or boarded up.