The massive four-alarm fire broke out about 4:30 a.m. Friday, engulfing a mixed-use building at the corner of 23rd and Valdez streets, two blocks from Lake Merritt.
The planned Mix-use building was one of several buildings that have “mysteriously” gone up in flames in the past few months. Emeryville too.
At first this Oakland fire seemed like someone hadn’t paid protection money. (It’s said the the Mexican Mafia gets pay off money from all the small motels up and down San Pablo Avenue, and owns others in Oakland and S.F./South San Francisco.)
Then there were rumors about builders who lacked funds to finish … so they had it 
torched.
But I go to the YMCA located just across the street from this torched building. Leaving, I saw a newscaster doing a story and decided it would make a good picture. As I turned to leave, a guy who works at an automotive shop a few feet away told me… “You know… the day it happened, there were some guys grumbling about them not using local workers. “Everyone who worked there were from somewhere else. San Jose has a lot of developments but they never get burned down because they use local workers.”
Union workers … but Local Vs. Non-Local?
“Twenty-two agents with the ATF arrived at the scene Monday morning to investigate.”
The authorities have a surveillance video of a man putting on a hood and gloves in the moments before a large apartment development was set on fire. The suspected arsonist is shown scaling the building’s scaffolding along San Pablo Avenue on the Oakland–Emeryville border.
That wasn’t this fire. That was a building that was torched TWICE. Who the hell is this guy?? Who is he working for?? Some pissed off anarchist? Somebody who works for … who? What’s his pay off? Whoever this creep is, I hope they catch him fast because we really need housing here. The rents are higher than Manhattan.
This is at least the fifth major construction site fire since 2012 that is being investigated by federal and local authorities.
Black Traveler 