No one was injured but two workers had to be rescued from the roof as a mid-day fire burned at 4228 Park Blvd. on June 8.
“Our guys were rolling around doing errands,” Piedmont fire chief Bret Black said. “They were driving on Park Blvd. and saw the fire.
“Whenever we provide mutual aid, we basically become an Oakland asset. We switch over to their command channel and their incident commander runs the scene.”
Although the fire was technically in Oakland, the first unit on the scene was a Piedmont Fire Department crew out on an errand. They quickly reported the fire to the Oakland Fire Department and helped with the blaze. It ended up being a three-alarm fire with about 60 Oakland fire fighters joining the Piedmont group.
Oakland Fire Department public information officer Michael Hunt said his department got the call at 2:44 p.m. It sent nine fire engines and three fire trucks to the scene. Hunt said the cause is unknown but that the foundation of the building appears to be intact.
“Due to the quick and aggressive fire attack, the blaze was contained to largely one structure,” Hunt said. “(The fire was) largely contained to the upper part of the structure.”
The Glenview building houses the Banana Blossom restaurant, Mike Martial Arts and the Dollar and Beyond store.
The Piedmont crew took the rear of the structure and concentrated on preventing the fire from spreading, according to Black.
Scene from Park Blvd. 
Fire fighters on back side of roof of burned building.
“They told me they had a lot of flames coming out the back side threatening nearby structures and they were able to contain the flames,” said Black, who arrived on the scene mid-emergency. “Our tactics are to immediately assess what is the most important thing going on here: rescuing people and trying to keep the fire from spreading from the building of origin. Oakland took the frontside and the rescue.”
The two men rescued were contract workers replacing 75-pound batteries in a cell tower for T-Mobile. One of them told the Exedra’s Mary Ireland that the fire started on the lower floor and that they suddenly saw flames from the rooftop. When the flames reached where they were working, the batteries exploded. The workers were trapped on the northwest corner of the roof and said it took about 15 minutes from when they called 911 to get rescued.
Hunt said there is no monetary estimate of damages at this time.