3 Alarm Fire Burns Decades-Old Cold Storage Facility

Burbank Fire Department responded to 10 W Magnolia Blvd at 2:28 am Monday morning after Burbank Police reported flames on the roof of the Former Americold Cold Storage building.

The 70,000- square foot building had fire showing in several locations on the roof and fire showing in other parts of the building, requiring the Incident Commander Battalion Chief John Owings to request 2 additional engine companies. Within minutes the the Chief called for a complete 2nd alarm bringing the remainder of Burbank Fire equipment to the scene, along with additional Battalion Chiefs from Glendale and Pasadena.

The mutual aid system that in in place had Glendale Fire equipment move up to cover the vacant Burbank Fire Stations and to respond to any other calls.

The fire was continuing to build and the Incident Commander called a 3rd alarm now bringing additional personnel from Pasadena and at that time the decision was to get all Firefighters off the roof and out of the building and go into a defense attack with large amounts of water from ladder-pipes and monitors from atop Fire engines.

The MetroLink tracks that run along the rear of the building were a concern for Firefighters and the trains were stopped until the trains could pass by safely. Burbank Police were called to close all traffic in both directions on the Magnolia Overpass.

The fire was difficult to fight as the walls in the building are 6 feet thick of concrete in some places, and the huge lumber inside was large and old. The fire was considered knocked down at 7:22 hrs. and a backhoe was going to be used to knock down some of the walls for total extinguishment.

There were no injuries to Firefighters and the amount of damage is still being figured out.

Back in June 2018, the City Community Development Department hosted a community open house to show plans to the public to develop a 2.4-acre event space with a roller rink, a restaurant, a craft beer pub, and an outdoor 47,000 square foot community space, In the location where the cold storage facility sits today. https://myburbank.com/burbank-common-restaurant-brewery-coming-downtown/