The building that formerly housed Santa Clara and South Bay favorite By-Th’-Bucket Bar & Grill and was to be the new home for the China Delight restaurant — located at 4565 Stevens Creek Blvd. in Santa Clara — was destroyed in a 3-alarm fire on Friday night, July 6.
At 10:35 p.m., the Santa Clara Fire Department received a report of the building fire. When units arrived less than six minutes later, the building was already in flames.
Firefighters entered the building in attempts to knock down the blaze but were unable to stop it.
Reports of an explosion heard over 1.5 miles away are assumed to be the sound of the fire exploding through the roof of the building.
911 dispatchers asked if the Red Cross would need to respond, but, fortunately, the firefighters on scene reported the Red Cross wouldn’t be necessary as no homes were involved and there were no injuries.
Firefighters were able to get the blaze under control after battling it for nearly two hours. Firefighters stayed throughout the weekend to address any flare-ups that might occur.
The cause of the fire is not known and an investigation into its origin is ongoing.
By Sunday afternoon, July 8, a little more than 36 hours after the inferno erupted, the smell from the fire still emanated from the remains of the building.
To help ensure the safety of the scene, an excavator knocked down parts of the building weakened by the fire and the water used to douse it. Between that and the intensity of the fire, the building suffered significant damage.
The Santa Clara Fire Department is working with local fire agencies to learn more about what could have caused the fire.
“We’ve call in the County Fire Investigation Task Force,” said Chief Kelly, “which is a group of fire service inspector officials from county fire agencies. So, other fire departments’ investigators are helping ours to help locate the origin of the fire and the cause of the fire.”
According to Chief Kelly, the process is quite slow because the site must be secure and remain safe as inspectors investigate the fire.
“We have no conclusive cause right now. We haven’t ruled anything out at this point so we’re still in the investigation phase.”
Unfortunately, China Delight was set to begin operations in their new home in the near future, and what will happen next is not known. The owner of China Delight was contacted, but, as of press time, had not responded.
The selective nature of the fire’s destructive force left the By-Th’-Bucket logo painted onto the building’s front wall remarkably intact, but the wall above it was ripped open and the roof above that, gone.
Visit the Santa Clara Weekly’s Facebook page for live videos and additional photos of the fire.
