Political activist squatters who lived for years in a vacant building in Oakland that burned early Wednesday morning were set to be evicted the day before the fire broke out, one of the activists said on Thursday.
The building at the corner of West MacArthur Boulevard and Martin Luther King Jr. Way housed a former RCA repair shop and several apartments, but burned in a one-alarm fire that broke out at about 12:30 a.m. Wednesday, fire Battalion Chief Erik Logan said.
The fire began outside the building and spread inside, causing significant damage to the interior walls and an exterior wall behind the building, where it appears it started, Logan said. The cause of the fire has not been determined.
Logan said that because of a lack of furniture and possessions inside, it appeared that no one was living there at the time the fire started. He said firefighters had difficulty contacting the property owner. Read more.
