Sacramento Warehouse Blaze Leads Police to Cannabis Grow Operation

A small warehouse in Sacramento burst into flames late Monday evening. Firefighters say that they found around 100 burning cannabis plants inside. Local police and investigators are now trying to locate the owners of the operation.

The warehouse was located near Arden at Auburn Boulevard and Frienza. Firefighters began receiving calls around 6pm reporting billowing smoke emanating from a warehouse.

The impregnable security made it much more difficult for firefighters to put out the blaze. “Extra padlocks, interior walls built up around openings that you wouldn’t normally expect in a commercial occupancy. So it gives the illusion from the street as business as normal, but once you get in there’s more complicated maze-like structures in there… they have to deal with,” stated Battalion Chief David Baldwin with the Sacramento Fire Department. The firefighters were forced to cut through the metal roll-up doors in order to get inside a second structure in the back.

Firefighters conducted two searches and confirmed that no bodies were trapped in the structure. No injuries were reported during the incident. The firefighters were able to put out the blaze, but not until the plants had been burned and the roof had collapsed. “Fire in commercial warehouse extinguished, confined to building of origin. Suspected grow operation, @SacPolice onscene. @metrofirepio,” The Sacramento Fire Department tweeted.

Local law enforcement are unaware if the operation was illegal. Some paperwork was found on the scene, suggesting that they may have been operating legally. The warehouse, however, was powered by conduit runs tapping into a neighbor’s power source. Following electrical use patterns typically helps police identify hidden grow operations.

Investigators are determining how the cause of the fire. This marks the second time this month that a grow operation has been destroyed by quick-spreading fires in Sacramento. Recently, the cannabis industry helped rally around the victims’ families and survivors of the devastating Ghost Ship fire.