A three-alarm fire around 2:30 am Thursday morning engulfed Lake Chabot Public Market in Castro Valley, and the seven businesses that called the food hall home have apparently lost everything.  

An early Thursday morning fire engulfed Castro Valley’s Lake Chabot Public Market, as the Chronicle reports, saying that the three-alarm fire rendered the building and everything in it “likely a total loss.” The market and food hall had been home to a butcher, a bakery, a couple cafes, and three restaurants, all of which now face uncertain futures given the severity of the damage to the roof and interior of the building.


The Alameda County Fire Department was alerted to the fire at about 2:20 am, and their battalion chief Justin Hoglund told the Chronicle that the blazes were “through the roof when we showed up. It was well involved.” At that point the fire had reached the building’s second floor and roof, with firefighters estimating its temperature was as high as 900 degrees.


Not long after that, the roof started collapsing, and per the Chron, 16 firefighters had to evacuate the structure for their own safety. NBC Bay Area reports firefighters feared the fire would spread to other buildings, though fortunately it did not.


And thankfully, as KPIX notes, there were no injuries reported. Just very significant, if not complete, property damage.

“It’s hard to process right now. My notifications were on silent so I didn’t find out until a friend called me at 5 am: ‘Have you seen the news? Your market is on fire!’” Hans Cho, owner of the market’s Mama Cho’s BBQ and co-founder of the market told the Chronicle. “This is everything to me. Not only the building but the businesses inside. I’m really concerned about the vendors and sharing the news with them.”


KTVU reports the fire was contained by 5:30 am, though firefighters continued batting down smaller flames for more than an hour. NBC Bay Area spoke to a battalion chief, and reports the cause of the fire “does not appear suspicious.”

Lake Chabot Public Market first opened in 2016, as an adaptive reuse of an abandoned grocery store space on Lake Chabot Road that had spent years sitting empty. Cho, who grew up in Castro Valley, explained in a YouTube video in 2015 that it was a three-year process getting approvals for the food hall, which is itself a family-owned business.

Related: Oakland Firefighters Contain Huge Four-Alarm Blaze at Lumber Warehouse [SFist]

Image: @AlamedaCoFire via Twitter