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Two pot farms discovered in burning Oakland high-rise near Lake Merritt
By William Brand, Harry Harris and Angela Hill, STAFF WRITERS
May 13, 2008
OAKLAND - Firefighters battling a fire early this morning in a once-staid, 80-year-old landmark building near Lake Merritt discovered marijuana farms on the sixth floor and in the seventh-floor penthouse, where the fire apparently started, authorities said. The penthouse was filled with marijuana plants and there were about a dozen plants growing on the penthouse balcony, which overlooks Lake Merritt, police said.
Oakland police said they pulled about 94 marijuana plants out of the seventh floor penthouse, including 52 plants in the bedrooms and about a dozen on the balcony. They also found 30 plants hanging in the bathroom being dried in preparation for sale. The estimated street value of at least $75,000, Longtime residents of the building at 1918 Lakeshore Ave. watched in amazement.
"We had no idea there was anything like (pot growing) going on up on the top floors," said Lucille Cullon, a resident in the building since 1949.
``The young man who lives in the penthouse was supposed to be raising puppies up there,'' Cullom said. "I guess not." Another longtime resident said the beautiful old building, which was built in the 1920s, has deteriorated in the past few years with maintenance problems. And residents know of at least two people in the building who were arrested on drug charges during the past year.
"It's really been a shame to see this place go downhill,'' one resident said. Police, meanwhile, are looking for two suspects, the residents of the sixth floor and seventh floor penthouse apartments. Officers said the penthouse resident apparently tried to put out the fire on the sixth floor, but when it got out of hand, he fled. Their names and descriptions were not immediately released.
Oakland Fire Battalion Chief Lorenzo Frediani said fire investigators believe the fire was caused by illegal wiring supplying power to the penthouse. "Normally, we shut off power to a building and that's it," Frediano said.
"But when people do illegal activity and mess with the wiring, we've got to be careful." They bypass the meter so the power can't be shut off, he said.
Oakland police said they pulled 94 marijuana plants out of the seventh floor penthouse, 52 plants in the penthouse bedrooms, 64 plants on the balcony. They also found 30 plants hanging in the bathroom being dried in preparation for sale.
On the sixth floor in apartment 66, police recovered more than 60 plants from bedrooms. Indoor growing lights and a number of transformers used to increase the voltage of electricity were found in the apartment and in the penthouse, police said.
Officers on the scene said they were unimpressed by the quality of the marijuana being grown. "We see a lot of grows," one officer said.
"These are the most putrid plants I've seen," he said.
"I've seen some grows where the plants were bushy and full. But even the ones hanging up weren't that good looking," the officer said. "It makes you wonder if these guys really knew what they were doing."
The two alarm fire was reported at 12:40 a.m. and brought under control shortly after 2 a.m.
Battalion Chief Frediani said investigators still aren't sure where the fire started, but they believe the source was the penthouse.
The fire spread down the walls as far as the fifth floor at the rear of the apartment building. It also reached the attic of the penthouse, Frediano said. It was a tough fire to fight, Frediani said.
"We had a 38-unit apartment building and we had fire in the walls on the fifth, sixth and seventh floors. The building is completely occupied and we had to evacuate everybody," he said. "It was the middle of the night and it's an 80-year-old building.
"You really couldn't see much. We knew there was fire, we could smell smoke, so we had to go into apartments and open walls," he said. Two residents were treated at the scene for minor smoke inhalation and one person had a cut hand, Frediani said.
Cullom, the longtime resident, said the fire was pretty scary. "The fire alarms went off, and everybody started coming out into the hallways before we even knew what was going on,'' said Cullom, who lives on the first floor. "My place is fine, but there was one gal on the fifth floor -- her place was soaked."
Chief Frediani estimated damage to the building at $200,000. He added that Oakland firefighters discover pot farms more and more frequently.
"There's a lot of money being made growing it," he said.
Copyright 2008
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