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A Home Depot store in San Jose was destroyed earlier this month in a fire so intense it could be seen from space. Photo courtesy Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives/Twitter
April 18 (UPI) — A suspect has been arrested in connection was a massive, five-alarm fire that destroyed a Home Depot store in San Jose earlier this month, authorities said Monday.
Santa Clara County District Attorney Jeff Rosen, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives and San Jose’s fire and police departments announced a “person suspected of starting” the April 9 fire has been taken into custody.
The suspect’s identity is to be revealed at a press event Tuesday, Rosen said.
The fire in the lumber section the store was so intense that flames were detected by orbiting satellites, the San Jose Mercury-News reported.
The store was leveled quickly despite the presence of at least 100 firefighters responding from 30 units across the San Francisco Bay area, who desperately battled an inferno fed by a combustible mix of wood, paint and other flammable materials.
The residual effects were still evident two days later as neighborhood residents contended with continuous noxious smoke.
Some 45 people were evacuated from their homes at the height of the blaze, KRON-TV reported.
The San Jose Fire Department revealed last week the ATF had become involved in the investigation, which was focusing on possible arson.
