Early Saturday morning, the nearly 120-year-old Pacheco Grange
Hall on 891 Shore Road burned to the ground in what authorities are
investigating as an arson.
HOLLISTER
Early Saturday morning, the nearly 120-year-old Pacheco Grange Hall on 891 Shore Road burned to the ground in what authorities are investigating as an arson.
“It looks like we had a burglary and an arson to cover up the burglary,” said Cliff Williams, an investigator for Calfire who declined to state what the burglars were after or if they had been successful.
Williams reports that the San Benito County Fire Department as well as Calfire responded by sending three trucks apiece with the county also bringing one water truck.
But the old, dry wood proved to be too flammable for firefighters to have much hope of saving the historic structure.
“We probably could have had a truck parked in front of the place before the fire started and still not have saved it,” commented Williams, who added that when firefighters had arrived, the flames were already “completely through the roof.”
“When we tried to get through the front door,” the investigator continued, “the ceiling started to fall. Then a wall went down, so we just had to back off into defensive mode.”
Many residents of the Shore Road neighborhood will miss the historic building as it served as a hub for the community.
“You can’t put a dollar value on it,” said Williams. “It’s a big loss to the community. They had dances and plays there. It was a polling place, and it acted as a church and school at different times as well as being a meeting place for a lot of clubs and organizations.”
Calfire is conducting a joint investigation with the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office.
