A three-alarm fire broke out early Tuesday at a Planned Parenthood health clinic in El Centro. The fire was extinguished by fire authorities later that morning.
El Centro Police and Fire Dispatch responded to a fire reported at a storage yard behind the Salvation Army near Fourth Street and Ross Avenue at 1:51 a.m.
Fire officials say the fire crossed to the adjacent Planned Parenthood Imperial Valley Homan Health Center building and a third alarm was requested at 2:01 a.m. It took crews about three hours to extinguish the fire.
Firefighters coordinated defensive firefighting operations to save the building that formerly housed Exotic Thai Bistro. Planned Parenthood owned the building and was in the middle of renovating it.
No patients or staff were present at the time of the fire. No civilians or firefighters were injured.
The El Centro Fire Department requested assistance from the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives to investigate the cause of the fire. The Planned Parenthood building received extensive damage, according to the El Centro Fire Department. Planned Parenthood officials described it as a “major fire” in a statement.
“This health center has always been a beacon for access to quality and compassionate sexual and reproductive health in a medically underserved area, and served as a safe haven for people traveling from other states to access the vital care they needed and couldn’t receive elsewhere. The impact of this loss will be felt throughout the community and beyond,” said Darrah DiGiorgio Johnson, the president and CEO of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest.
A total of nine units responded to the fire including in addition to 20 mutual aid firefighters.
