Crews battle fire near former Fort Ord

UPDATE (10:45 p.m.): An abandoned building near the former Fort Ord is being allowed to burn down after catching fire Wednesday afternoon.

The Marina Fire Department says the structure is an abandoned duplex in the Cypress Knolls development. They responded to the fire at around 2:30 p.m. and found the building burning.

“The front half of the duplex was mostly involved. It was already into the attic and extended through the attic and ran the length of the structure,” said Jeffrey Abraham, the officer-in-charge at the scene and fire engineer in the Marina Fire Department. “We ended up containing it to the structure and just keeping it from going to other houses.”

They made the decision to allow it to burn down after forming a fire protection boundary. Police will continue to check up on the fire throughout the night.

Officials on scene tell KION there are roughly five to seven incidents a year at abandoned former military housing in the Cypress Knolls neighborhood.

“It’s an ongoing issue that we’ve got. There are transients that live in the area. Whether it’s transients or people messing around, it’s hard to tell,” said Abraham.

“It does in general concern me of having a lot of homeless and the random fires,” said Kevin Kam, a Marina resident who lives nearby the abandoned neighborhood.

Police are not sure if this fire was started by transients. The city does fence off the neighborhood to outsiders, but residents nearby say it does not keep people out.

“There’s a lot of homeless trying to stay warm, cook something wherever they can. And fire is pretty much be wherever they are. Potentially fire,” said Kam.

Marina Police are investigating the cause of this fire.

INITIAL REPORT:

Officials are battling a fire in Marina.

Marina Fire and Presidio Fire are working a structure fire in the Cypress Knolls development.

Crews will be on site for the next few hours.

KION has a crew en route.