Firefighters determine cooking incident led to fire at vacant home in Salinas

A cooking incident gone horribly wrong Saturday evening sends an empty house in Salinas up in flames.

No one was hurt and the fire was put out within 10 minutes, but the building on the 1100 block of Pacific Avenue has some interesting history to it. Firefighters found out it had been boarded up because of a previous fire.

They also determined someone had been cooking near the back of the house. They found food, pots and pans. Since the house had no electricity, they believe that is the probable cause of the fire.

The call came in around 4:30 Saturday afternoon, firefighters quickly determined no one was in the home.

Battalion Chief Herb Shoemaker said Salinas police made sure neighbors living near the home were evacuated. They were eventually let back in and no one was displaced.

Shoemaker added, they will contact the owner of the building on Monday to make a plan to tear the home down for good.