VIDEO: On Monday morning, firefighters with Central Fire Santa Cruz received a report of smoke and flames at 820 Bay Ave. When responders arrived, they found what was left of Sushi Garden. Jacek Kokok, B-shift battalion chief at Central Fire Santa Cruz, let us know how the fire started. “It looks like the fire started on the backside of Sushi Garden and worked its way into the structure. However, there were no injuries reported,” Kokok said. Due to the flames spreading from the first floor to the second, additional crews were called. Kokok also told us, ” The building is approximately 6100ftยฒ and due to the size of the building and the amount of fire that was seen upon arrival, we decided to call for additional resources to stay ahead of the incident.โ
Nicole DeLauder, office manager of Luma Properties, where Sushi Garden is located, has been on the ground working with building tenants since they got word of the fire. DeLauder said, ” My role has been being face-to-face with the tenants. First and foremost, being here for the owners, just to support wherever I could to make sure everyone was safe and knew what was coming next.” Rebuilding is on the agenda for those involved, while also getting the impacted tenants the necessary resources they need to deal with this. DeLauder left us with this: “We want people to know that everybody’s safe, and our biggest focus is to get everybody back to work as soon as possible, to rebuild as soon as possible, and to let the community know that we are doing our absolute best to make that happen.”
