Early morning fire hits commercial laundry

Fire investigators are looking for possible causes of an early morning fire in a couple of tubs used to store mops at a commercial laundry in a single-story commercial building at 560 Oak Grove Ave. in Menlo Park this morning, Tuesday, Dec. 8.

Sixteen firefighters in four engines and a ladder truck plus a battalion chief arrived at the Team Clean laundry at 6:43 a.m., about two minutes after the 911 call, said Fire Chief Harold Schapelhouman of the Menlo Park Fire Protection District.

Firefighters found dense sooty smoke from floor to ceiling upon entering the laundry, Chief Schapelhouman said. About 10 employees were “milling around” outside when they arrived, he said.

There were no injuries and no structural damage to the building, but between $20,000 and $30,000 in damage to the building contents, Chief Schapelhouman said, adding that that estimate could rise if linens inside were damaged by smoke from the mops and the plastic of the tubs. The laundry serves hospitals, he said.

“Smoke has kind of a negative effect,” Chief Schapelhouman said. “Some of those things might be unusable. We’ll see.”

The building itself is likely to be usable soon after it’s cleaned up inside, he added. The fire had no apparent impact on the other businesses that share the building.