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SLO fire burns three businesses, photos

December 26, 2015

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A fire that began before noon on Saturday is still burning inside a business on Higuera Street in San Luis Obispo. No injuries have been reported.

At about 11 a.m., firefighters responded to the Sub, a head shop and retail store, on the 200 block of Higuera Street. The fire then spread through the attic to several other businesses.

At 8 p.m., smoke continued to billow from the Sub while Firefighters from multiple agencies battled the blaze.

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LOLOLOL!!! FINALLY a REAL fire and the over paid, over staffed, under used ” Fire fighters” blow it.

Five station plus local support and its still burning after 6 hours AND spread to multiple buildings? So much for the claim of reduced response times…6 hours??? Could have had LA fire here, put out the fire, grab a tri-tip sangy at Firestone and back home by then.

Sure… keep adding taxes for additional personnel. How great was that ladder truck 50 ft above everything with one guy on it… Taxes well spent. They will turn this around to asking for more money for additional training.

Keep to padding stats for chasing ambulances, It’s the only way you can justify your existence.


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Do you or anyone know what was in that building (i.e. flammables that accelerate)?


Have any of you watched a fire burn? I remember watching the L.A. 10 o’clock news for years on cable here and many a time seeing a fire like this that burns for hours and hours. Man I have NEVER seen such a feeding frenzy to go after the firefighters here. Man if this isn’t the microwave generation. We want everything fast. Guess that means all fires out in 15 minutes. Yes that would be great but lets get real people!!


Anyone remember that house fire in A.G. back about three or four months ago? Burned for hours and hours and that was just a house!!


Amazing that so many are ready to decent on firefighters with ZERO evidence that there is or was even a problem.


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And had they not had the aerial attack and the fire leaped to the surrounding neighborhood you would be going after them for that.


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proof that 5 fire stations in SLO arent enough. Time for a new sales tax increase to fund two more stations and salaries that exceed $200K a year for these heros.


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Just what SLO needs, more room for another PB Properties or NKT project.


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Don’t leave out Gary Grossman and CCB. Ugly condos and tract homes coming to a neighborhood near you.


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As always in these situations, out come all the armchair Q.B.’s. to criticize.


I don’t think it was any firefighters intention to not do the best they could. Like Laftch said, it is life and people first, then property. I feel for the owner of the store but bad shit happens to people every day. Be THANKFUL you have your life. Lot of accidents around here the last couple weeks that cost lives. Life is cruel and we (ESPECIALLY FIRST RESPONDERS) do the best we can, with what we are given, so why don’t you stop, THINK and then ask yourself if you could have done better with split second decisions on the spot, instead of the day after.


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No one is saying the entire Fire Dept. should be fired.


Citizens have a right to have to ask if there is room for improvement.


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Wow nice putting words in one’s mouth. WHERE did I say anyone said fire? I said they were critical. Yes there is nothing with being critical IF AND WHEN we know if there was a problem. Do you know for a FACT that there was a problem? People are accusing them of something that we don’t even know if there was a problem!!! I say we should save our judgement till we know that. That was my point.


God we are turning into a nation of whiny bitches about everything. Damned if you do damned if you don’t. I get to where I feel real sorry for people working as cops and firefighters and everyone forgetting they are HUMAN! We expect to be given the benefit of the doubt by our accusers but we don’t reciprocate of letting them be proven guilty of something or anything before we jump all over them.


Fires happen every day. Police shootings happen every day. Yes there may be questions if something goes wrong but with the net and everything, we judge every frigging move of them. This is the WORSE I have seen it in all my years. Love to see half of you hold up to this scrutiny in your everyday job. Bet half of you would fail.


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The only one whining is you, as evidency by the absurd tone of your post which conflates people asking for a review of SLO City Fire Dept. performance to the decline of Western Civilization.


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After reading the article in the Trib. I feel as a retired local volunteer firefighter I must respond to the criticism aimed at the fire dept. efforts. Firstly the owner of the establishment has no idea of the dangers involved in an interior offensive attack. Firefighting priorities are rescue of viable occupants, protection of threatened exposures, confinement of the fire to involved areas, and then extinguishment of the fire in a way that does not endanger the public or personnel. The taxpaying public cannot afford any longer, nor should they want a first responder system that can always be available instantly to mitigate their lack of responsibility for their own well being. I agree with BigRed that we should moderate the tendency to hero worship these people, a condition admittedly taken advantage of especially after 9/11.


Every person who is capable should know how to and be willing to perform CPR when the need arises. It is in the first few minutes after cardiac arrest that lives are saved by chest compressions, rarely after 5-10 minutes when EMS arrives. Working smoke detectors, fire suppression equipment, properly employed and maintained electrical circuitry, clean and uncluttered living and work spaces and fire defensible properties are the individuals responsibility.


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please just remain retired and enjoy your exorbitant tax payer funded retirement and stfu while your at it?


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At least the city finally got to use their multi-million dollar ladder truck. See they did need it after all, not.


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I sure hope you don’t ever dial 911, you don’t deserve what these men and woman do for people every day.


This fire had a lot of fuel to feed on and I am sure they did not just show up to put on a show.


I don’t call them hero’s to often, but they are willing to put their lives on the line and that is more than most people will do.


You sound like the shop keeper who said the ff’s would not listen to him. They know how to fight a fire, and they were in the building and saw how it was configured. This is not a game of show and tell with these guys, a good win for them is to put the fire out quickly and keep damage to a minimum.


The fire was still burning at 5 pm because of the amount of inventory this store had in there.


With your attitude maybe they should have just packed up at 5 pm and gone for dinner. Yet they stayed doing the job at hand and kept the upholstery store from going up in flames.


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You sound like George W. Bush when he said “you’re with us or you’re with the terrorists.”


Firemen, like anyone else, need to have their performance evaluated.


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They are quick to soak up the hero mystique when they’re negotiating contracts. Remember that? Making veiled threats not to respond? Check the wire, neighboring departments are already mocking our FD and asking WTF. Let’s remember this during the next round of negotiations.


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Neighboring depts? Do you have links?


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Santa Barbara is especially bemused they were asked for assistance from 100 miles away for a structure fire in SLO while Ventura was still in need. No links. Professionals talk to each other. But stay tuned.


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Saw in paper they asked for neighboring assistance from Atascadero and A.G. (I think it was A.G.). Love to see where this comes from other than hearsay. Fact that they could still have asked numerous closer depts that they hadn’t yet, why would you ask so far away?? They could have asked Santa Maria, Five Cities, etc. I just find this very hard to believe as it would make no common sense.


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AG is the same as Five Cities. AG, Grover, Oceano are all one Dept, Five Cities Fire Authority.


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The city has been aching to get rid of those old buildings, let’s put it out when it is beyond repair?


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Wow, we are doomed if anything larger ever breaks out. Another reminder that we should relax a little on turning cops and FFs into folk heroes. They are very careful and well funded bureaucrats at best. Great showing boys. Sorry you missed lasagna night back at the station.


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The owner of the Sub was not happy about the performance of SLO city firefighters. He may just be lashing out because his business literally went up in smoke.


At the least, it would be interesting to find out if any performance evaluation is done on firefighters and their chiefs in situations like this.


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After action analysis is always done after every incident. Every firefighter and EMS person I have ever known always tries to determine how he or she could have done better. Learning never stops.


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The police have the blue line.

I wonder if the fire department has the red line. Not to say that anything may have been wrong but who will decide if they did or did not? The police are publicly checked by everyone for their actions and at the same time people look at firemen like they walk on water-well they did put a lot of water on this one.

What will Jan Marx tell us about the drought situation in SLO now?


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I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again Jan Marx is an idiot!


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How effective is Fire Department self-analysis? Especially in a town like San Luis where they hired back John Ryan Mason after he brained a guy in a bar.


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Probably as effective as CAPSLO’s internal analysis… or Arroyo Grande’s…


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