A structure fire broke out around 10am Tuesday morning in downtown Boonville in an area behind Lauren’s Restaurant and the Live Oak building. First responders quickly hooked up fire hoses to the hydrants at the Fairgrounds across the street as smoke billowed up behind the two prominent retail establishments. It is believed the fire started in rear of a small home in an area roughly 50 yards from Highway 128. Boonville native Eddie Carsey owns the site of the blaze and several nearby structures.
The Tuesday morning structure fire in Boonville behind Lauren’s Restaurant was out by 1pm, having effectively destroyed a small house with small (and permitted, legal) daycare operation in the back. No one was hurt. Highway 128 was closed in both directions for about 30 minutes.
AV Fire Chief Andres Avila said Tuesday’s fire was the sixth in a string of structure fires in Anderson Valley since Thanksgiving, three of them in downtown Boonville.
“This was not an arson,” a nearby resident declared. Apparently, neighbors of the Tuesday fire heard some kind of explosion and when they looked in that direction, a fire was breaking out in the small house-structure and they immediately called it in.
The small house is nestled in a grove of trees which did NOT catch fire, mainly because of the quick response of local firefighters, most of them volunteers.
The front part of the house is still intact on the outside, but the interior suffered so much water and fire damage that it seems doubtful that it could be economically repaired. Several firefighters said that the fire was hard to attack because there appeared to be three or four old layers of roof on fire.
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