OCEANSIDE — Working through the night into Friday afternoon, Oceanside firefighters and other first responders continued extinguishing a smoldering fire that engulfed the end of Oceanside Pier.
Lifeguards first reported smoke coming from the former Ruby’s Diner at 3:02 p.m. Thursday. Fire units were quickly dispatched and arrived at the scene five minutes later, evacuating everyone on the pier.
Hundreds of onlookers watched from land as the fire created a large, dark plume of smoke that rose from the pier, visible from beaches as far south as Encinitas and Del Mar.
More than 100 firefighters, city staff, and other local emergency personnel responded to the blaze, including mutual aid from the Vista and Carlsbad fire departments, Cal Fire, the U.S. Coast Guard, San Diego HazMat and San Diego Lifeguards, and cooperating agencies like Oceanside Police and San Diego Gas & Electric.
A combination of boats, two helicopters, and various fire engines contained the fire to the end of the pier by 6 p.m. that evening, though efforts continued to put out the fire overnight and into the next day.
According to OFD, no injuries were reported due to the fire.
“If you look around, it doesn’t matter what patch they’re wearing on their shoulder,” said Oceanside Fire Chief David Parsons at an on-site press briefing Thursday evening. “Everybody is providing assistance as if we’re one unified agency, and honestly, the success of this has been based on that partnership.”
Parsons said the SDG&E helicopter was a “game changer” for the firefighting efforts because it could collect water from the ocean and drop approximately 2,500 gallons per trip onto the flames.
Parsons told NBC 7 that a brand-new fire impression system saved 90% of the pier after the city spent $5.5 million last year upgrading aging pipes and electrical systems on the pier.
As the inferno was put out on the top and bottom decks, fire debris dropped into the ocean below, leaving officials concerned about potential environmental impacts. According to the fire chief, the Coast Guard will handle hazardous materials in the water, and San Diego HazMat will handle any impacts on land.
According to city officials, a Coast Guard-issued safety zone will be in force pending further notice, prohibiting the public from entering any areas within 500 yards of the charred pier.
“There is a lot of debris in this water,” Parsons told reporters late Friday morning. “There’s a lot of runoff from the fire. We don’t want people to get sick from contacting potentially contaminated water. At this point, it’s just fire debris; it should be minimal, but we don’t know, and we have our partners at county health coming in to help evaluate that.”
The damage appears to be extensive for both Ruby’s and the adjacent Brine Box restaurant kiosk, with Ruby’s missing most or all of its roof at this point.
“We want you to know that our team is safe,” Brine Box wrote in an Instagram post on Thursday. “Our Brine Box team was working out on the pier today, serving fresh local fish and veggies to our awesome community. Chef Rachel saw smoke coming up from underneath the pier, behind the old Ruby’s building and called 911.”
The cause of the fire is still under investigation.
Over the course of the extended firefight, crews put a “trench cut'” in the deck, removing a section of it to allow for access to flames burning underneath it and prevent the blaze from traveling any farther down the pier to the east, the fire chief explained.
Parsons said he believed the structure would likely be reparable but added that it remained unclear how long such renovations might take.
“The city engineer has done an initial basic evaluation,” he said. “Everything looks stable … up to the point of the cut we created. However, we still don’t have a full assessment of where the fire has burned.”
Oceanside has had six piers in its history as a city, with the first built in 1888 at the end of what is now Wisconsin Avenue. This pier, which was made entirely of wood and only 300 feet long, was destroyed in a storm two years after it was built.
The next five piers, including the current one, were built at the end of Pier View Way. The original pier’s replacement was built in 1896 and lasted six years before it was also destroyed by severe weather.
The current pier was built in 1987 and is 1,954 feet long, making it one of the longest piers on the West Coast, according to the city.
Rep. Mike Levin (D-San Juan Capistrano) and state Sen. Catherine Blakespear (D-Encinitas) reportedly contacted Mayor Esther Sanchez and promised to ask for federal and state funds to help repair the damage. Sanchez emphasized the need for the city to move quickly on repairs.
“This is so very important to the citizens of Oceanside,” Sanchez said. “(The pier) is iconic; it is Oceanside.”
Parsons told reporters that crews were getting close to subduing the blaze after nearly 20 hours
of nonstop effort.
“We’re not going to declare the fire under control quite yet, but we’re almost there,” Parsons said.
As of midday Friday, the Strand remained closed north of the pier to Surfrider Way due to ongoing
emergency services operations.
City News Service contributed to this report.
